STORY 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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ROCHESTER 



A Story Historical 



JENNY MARSH PARKER 



Behold ! a change which proves e'en fiction true, — 
More springing wonders than Aladdin knew. . . . 
These cross-crowned spires and teeming streets confess 
That man at last hath quelled the wilderness. 

Frederic Whittlesey. 1S26 

All honor to the toil-worn pioneers, 

A brave, a sturdy band, although to fame 

Unknown, who, like the orb of day, untired 

And still, have changed by labors ever new 

The dark primeval wilderness to fields 

Of smiling beauty. . . . 

The noblest benefactors of their race. 

Harvey Humphrey 




ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
SCRANTOM, WETMORE AND COMPANY 

Publishers and Booksellers 
18S4 



^1 



Copyright, 1884, 
ByJEXNY MARSH PARKER. 

All rii^hts reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 



DEDICATED 

TO 

SARAH R. A. DOLLEY, M. D. 



CONTENTS. 



I. The Old Long House and the TexXant Unknown . ^""^ 
II. The Tenant Dispossessed 

III. Trouble in the Camp ^ 

ID 

IV. Irondequoit Bay .... 

V. The City of Tryon, on Irondequoit Bay . . 32 
VI. The Genesee of the Senegas .... 36 

VII. The Title Deed of the New Tenant ... 41 
VIII. Arrival Number One 

IX. Some of our First Families 

X. A Dismal Swamp 

••••.. 70 

XI. ROGHESTEKVILLE p 

XII. Our Brave Thirty-three 

XIII. "Clinton's Big Ditch" j^g 

XIV. A Decade Memorable jj 

XV. The Old Files * * ^ ? 

XVI. Mount Hope . • • - j 

XVII. The Isms Charge 

XVIII. Men and Things Notable . . . . \ 27-' 

XIX. What shall be Hereafter ^in 

XX. A FEW First Things : Scrap-Basket Historical 337 

Appendix A 

353 

Appendix B . 

357 

Index 

407 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Genesee Falls 

Glen House, Lower Falls (faces) ..... 

Rattlesnake ......... 

The Tenant Unknown ....... 

The Tenant Dispossessed ...... 

Emblems whose Glory is Departed .... 

Irondequoit Bay 

Hennepin's Picture of Niagara 

Embryo Isaak Walton ...... 

Stump Mortar ........ 

Indian Treaty ........ 

Map of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase (faces) 

N. Rochester (faces) 

Selye Fire Engine Manufactory (faces) .... 
Mills of Thomas Kempshall (faces) .... 

A Cavalcade 

Map of the Original One Hundred Acre Tract (faces) 
The Carthage Wooden Bridge, iSiS 

Eagle Tavern (faces) 

Rochester City Bank 

Canal Boat 

Plan of the New Aqueduct (faces) 

Keg from which Clinton poured the Water of Lake Erie 

Adantic 
Map of the Village of Rochester in 1820 (faces) 
Rochester House (faces) 
Christ Church (faces) 
Second Baptist Church (faces) . 
First Presbyterian Church (faces) 
St. Luke's Church, P. E. (faces) . 
St. Patrick's Church, R. C. (faces; 
Tonnewanta Railroad Bridge 
Carthage Railroad . 
Henry O'Reilly (faces) 
The Old Arcade 

Old Residences on Fitzhugh Street (faces) 
Mills of Charles J. Hill (faces) 



Frontispiece. 




4 




6 




7 




15 




20 




2.1 




31 




35 




40 




43 




44 




58 




60 




60 




64 




64 




69 




74 




94 




106 




1 12 


into the 






118 




118 




1 20 




t3o 




132 




132 




132 




132 




134 




135 




146 




155 




162 




164 



vm 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Mills of E. W. Scrantom (faces) 

The New Market (1 83S) 

Rochester High School 

Mills of Warham Whitney (faces) 

Eajjle Mills (faces) 

Brick Church, I'resbyterian (faces) 

St. Paul's (Grace) Church, P. E. (faces) 

Dr. Dewey (faces) 

The Old Allen Seminary, now the Site of tlie Warner Buildings 

Third Presbyterian Church (faces) 

First Methodist Chapel (faces) ...... 

A North Road Stage Coach 

" Plain Bonnets for Friends and Methodists "... 

J. Robinson, the Hair Cutter 

The Summer Garden in Carroll Street 

Entrance to Mount Hope 

Myron Holley (faces) 

Erickson Monument (faces) 

View of Hill of Revolutionary Patriots at Mount Hope (faces) 
Su^an B. Anthony (faces) ....... 

Kate Fox (faces) 

Powers Commercial Buildings and tlie Powers Hotel (faces) 

.Monroe House (faces) 

D. W. Powers (faces) 

Warner Buildings (faces) 

The Warner Observatory, Interior (faces) .... 

Warner Observatory (faces) 

Warner Residence (faces) 

Elephas Primagenus 

James Vick (faces) 

University of Rochester (faces) 

M. B. Anderson (faces) ....... 

Rochester Savings Bank (faces) 

St. Paul's Church in Ruins (faces) ..... 

First Baptist Church (faces) 

Bird's-Eye \'iew of Rochester 

Brick Church, Presbyterian (faces) 



164 
165 
166 
166 
166 
168 
168 
170 

183 
194 
194 
210 
21 1 
212 
216 
223 
230 
232 
236 
260 
268 

272 

274 
2S0 
28 2 
284 
286 
288 
291 
294 
296 
29S 
302 
312 
318 

319 

322 



ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL 



THE OLD LONG HOUSE AND THE TENANT UNKNOWN. 

When Diedrich Knickerbocker began his unique History 
of New York with the creation, and accepted the theories 
of "one Charlevoix, a man averse to the marvelous," 
whereby a hypothetical fourth son of Noah was given the 
honor of discovering the New World, he had at least the 
satisfaction of going back as far as his most exacting reader 
could demand. 

The story of Rochester begins with that of the Genesee 
Valley. The story of the Genesee Valley has its beginning 
in the unwritten history of the early human race on this 
continent, the first possessors of this soil we call our own. 
The evidences of that unrecorded occupancy are fast dis- 
appearing. The traces of the mound-builders in Western 
New York are nearly obliterated. Who can find at Han- 
ford's Landing to-day the outline, even, of the semicircular 
embankment the early settlers discovered, but had little 
tmie or mclination to study or preserve .? Of what value to 
them were the bones, coins, and pottery found around Iron- 
dequoit Bay, having decided that they were the remains of 
modern Indians killed in tribal war, or those of some of the 
Frenchmen that once tried to possess the land ? Skulls 
that our prehistoric students of to-day would give much to 
examine were tossed aside as worthless by the "money-dig- 
gers," who delved in vain for French treasure chests Tn 
Webster and Penfield. 

The ends of that semicircular embankment, we are told 
extended to the very edge of the ravine. It had three nar- 



2 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

row gateways, placed at regular intervals. The traditions 
of the Indians reveal nothing concerning it, but Mary Jem- 
ison tells us that just before she came to this country (1759) 
there was a great land slide on the Upper Genesee, and 
human bones were unearthed, which the Indians declared 
were those of the people who held their hunting-grounds 
Ion- before them, and who were not of their kindred. 
Wh^ence they came and whither they went the wisest sa- 
chems did not pretend to guess. To the Indian, the Tenant 
Unknown, the ancient possessor of this country, was as 
o-reat a mystery as he is to us. The few remaining evi- 
dences of his occupancy do not lose their interest because 
our wise men cannot tell us for a certainty the color of his 
skin, his status of culture, or his lineage; whether he per- 
ished without descendants in the course of nature like many 
species of plants and animals of former years, or whether 
he was exterminated by a stronger and wiser people. Of 
the race succeeding him we know almost as little. Nor 
can we say with certainty that the traces of ancient works 
in this locality can lay claim to the highest antiquity. Their 
last faint traces are rapidly disappearing. We may look in 
vain at the " Sea Breeze " for an outline of the two mounds 
where fragments of bone, pottery, and other rude relics 
were found. It stands recorded that these historical mounds 
occupied the high, sandy ground to the westward of Iron- 
dequoit Bay, where it connects with Lake Ontario, and that 
on the eastern shore, in a corresponding position, was an- 
other mound of considerable size which, it is said, contained 
human bones. Unfortunately our famous townsmen, Lewis 
H. Morgan and Prof. Henry A. Ward, were not on the 
ground when those mounds were opened, nor when the 
treasures of another on Irondcquoit Creek, in Penfield, 
were brought to the surface. The platform of the Bay 
Railroad Depot at the Sea Breeze is said to be built upon 
soil that has yielded a rich harvest of coins, skulls, and im- 
plements of ancient warfare, if the stories of the old set- 
tlers may be credited, but nothing has been preserved. 
The flat, sandy meadow to the southwest of the station has 



THE OLD LONG HOUSE AND THE TENANT UNKNOWN. 3 

been called " The Old French Burying-Ground," and there 
is a legend that it was there that De Nonville buried his 
dead. 

The Genesee Valley was rich in ancient remains. Traces 
of the cemeteries and forts of the early Senecas were nu- 
merous along its banks, and if the testimony of the Indians 
may be received, a people have lived upon its shores and 
passed away of whom they have not the faintest tradition. 

The spade of the pioneer of the Genesee Country has 
unearthed other prehistoric remains than those of the 
mound-builders. We know that the mastodon once went 
tramping over this region, browsing on forest trees, and 
that he existed on the soil of North America for thousands 
of years. Whether he was the contemporary of the mound- 
builders or not we may never know for a certainty, or if his 
day was waning when the lord of the bow and arrow dis- 
puted his supremacy. He claims the dim border land of 
our historic soil, and none of us are inclined to dispute the 
assertion that " he must have lived at a time when the 
surface of the country was better calculated to sustain 
mastodons than now." The tusk of one of these gigantic 
quadrupeds, discovered here in 1838, was nine feet long. 
It was found by the workingmen digging the Genesee Val- 
ley Canal, near where the Plymouth Avenue Bridge now 
stands. Bones of the head, several ribs, parts of the ver- 
tebrae, etc., were also found, intermingled with gravel and 
covered with clay and loam. Unfortunately, the workmen 
had made sorry havoc before the nature of the bones was 
discovered, and measures taken to preserve them. This 
valuable relic of some prehistoric quadruped may be seen 
in the State Museum at Albany. Molar teeth of the mas- 
todon have been found in various places near Rochester, 
and as early as 1817 a discriminating eye discovered what 
proved to be similar remains in the bed of Deep Hollow 
Creek. 

Mound-builder and mastodon, — and yet we have hardly 
reached the beginning of our story. Perhaps Diedrich 
Knickerbocker was correct after all, and we had been wise 



4 



ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



in following his example. Rochester is an evolution of the 
Genesee Falls. " Ga-sko-sa'-go " was the Indian name, 
meaning " at the Falls," and for years after Allan's Mill 
was built at the ford the place was called Falls Town. The 
story of the F"alls is best told sitting on the piazza of the 
Glen House, for one of the first chapters thereof is written 
in the succession of strata so plainly seen on the high east- 
ern bank. If, when you have called each stratum by name, 
you tell us how the gorge has been excavated, how the Gen- 
esee has made its channel and its cascades, taking us back 
to the time when there was but one cataract, — where does 
our story begin, pray tell t And if, when you are done 
with making plain how with the wearing away of shale 
and the opposition of Niagara limestone, etc., a cascade, 
yes, two or more, went traveling southward years ago, and 
that this recession is still going on,^ and that a time will 
come when the Falls, in the phrase of our southern folk, 
"will be done gone entirely," the river rushing over a 
gradually sloping bed to its outlet, Irondequoit Bay a marsh 
or meadow, a tranquil stream winding through the valley, 
— when is this story to end } Can you tell } 

And so perhaps the most exacting reader, who has little 
approval for a story of Rochester that does not tell of the 
first things that may be told, will forgive our only casting a 
glance at the Old Ridge Road. That ancient landmark, 
more surely than the river, perhaps, will lead us back to an 
age when this New World w^as the Old World in the phys- 
ical history of the earth's surface, to the time before the 
upheaval of the hills standing round about our city, and 
when the conditions of the surface and the proportions of 
land and water were very different from the present, when 
there was possibly a communication between the waters of 
this great valley and the Mississippi, "and masses of ice 
with boulders were drifting over the surrounding inland 
sea." 

That the Ridge Road, a much traveled trail of the Sen- 

' It is said that the Falls of Niagara are receding at the rate of forty feet 
in fiftv years. 



vh'^S'';., 








?^m&i 







GLEN HOUSE, LOWER FALLS. 



THE OLD LONG HOUSE AND THE TENANT UNKNOWN. 5 

ecas, and an almost finished road for the early settlers, was 
the ancient beach or boundary of a large body of water has 
been settled conclusively. A discussion of the many the- 
ories as to the cause or causes that drained Lake Ontario 
from its old limits may be most profitably discussed in driv- 
ing over the smooth, hard roadway, through the charming 
farm lands of Greece, where there are many who, in digging 
their cellars and wells, have found shells, pebbles, and other 
evidences that the land was once submerged. Dr. Dewey 
used to exhibit to the pupils of the old High School a frag- 
ment of a tree, — a white cedar, which in 1834 or there- 
abouts was found sixteen feet below the surface in a well 
in Greece, about five miles west of the Genesee. The veg- 
etable mould in which it was discovered lay upon a bed of 
fine white sand, like that of the present lake shore. The 
Doctor's lectures upon the subject, well illustrated with 
drawings of modern lake beaches and ridges, with perhaps 
a geological and botanical excursion of the class to the 
Lower Falls and the Ridge Road, are vv^ell remembered 
by many of his old pupils still in our midst, and how he 
used to discourse in his ever serene, happy way, — with 
many a story and an occasional pinch of snuff, — of the 
different theories concerning the formation of the Ridge; of 
the proofs that the water covered a large tract of country, 
but only to a moderate depth ; that there was a gradual sub- 
sidence by the bursting of successive barriers ; and how at 
last, by the removal of the one on the St. Lawrence, the 
waters subsided to a still lower level, and Lake Ontario 
sank to its present dimensions. If his pupils sometimes 
failed in following him when he pursued his subject through 
the denuding agencies which excavated the valleys of West- 
ern New York, and the formation of river channels and lake 
basins in general, he was sure to gain their attention when 
he told the stories of the modern Ridge Road, the reminis- 
cences of early settlers and later pioneers who had been 
quick to discover what that natural highway would prove 
to the Genesee Country. One Joe Perry, a favorite rhym- 
ster of our early pioneers, had sat in a Ridge Road bar-room 



6 ROCJIESTEK: A STOKY IIISrORICAL. 

as early as 1812, and sun-- what he called "The Song of 
the Genesee Bushman " : — 

" I sing of the great Ridge Road, 

Of tlie highway our children shall see, 
That lies like a belt on Ontario's shore. 
Carved out in the wisdom of ages before, 

For the races that yet are to be," etc., etc. 

It was in the locality of the Falls that the workmen, in 
blasting for the foundations of Whitney's Mill at the foot of 
Brown's Race, discovered the ancient remains of what sug- 
gested that snakes akin to the boa-constrictors of Ceylon 
had once been a feature of the landscape. Mr. Nehemiah 
Osburn is, I believe, the authority for the size and com- 
parative number of the skeletons, and will testify, no doubt, 
that they may be properly mentioned with our prehistoric 
mastodons. 




The Ridge Road and the Genesee Falls were to the Sen- 
ecas' section of the old Iroquois Long House what the 
spacious entrance and hearthstone are to one of our Roch- 
ester homes of to-day. The dominion of the Iroquois, the 
League of the Five Nations, conquerors and masters of all 
the Indian nations east of the Mississippi, comprised the 
greater part of the Empire State, their name meaning by 
Indian interpretation, " People of the Long House," a fact 
with which we have all been made familiar by the title alone 
of Lewis H. Morgan's " League of the Iroquois " (People 
of the Long House). This confederacy of five distinct na- 
tions ranged in a line alonsr Central New York was likened 



THE OLD LONG HOUSE AND THE TENANT UNKNOWN. / 

to one of the long bark houses with which Mr. Morgan's 
readers are familiar. Five fires and five families. Some 
of these long houses deserved the name, as they were found 
by actual measurement to be five hundred and forty feet 
long, although only about thirty in breadth. 

As undisputed tenants to-day of the old Seneca Long 
House, it seems fitting that we should give a remembrance 
at least to the Tenant Unknown, him of whose occupancy 
so few vestiges remain, — faint outlines of old walls and em- 
bankments (who can say if they be tombs or altars T), and a 
few tusks and molars of animals that may have been trouble- 
some invaders of his peace. He has a place in our story 
as rightfully as the marked physical features of our domain, 
and no less for the reason that his claim upon us seems 
that of a fossilized race of independent fragments, so used 
are we to seeing him thus represented in museums of pre- 
historic remains. 




ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



II. 

THE TENANT DISPOSSESSED. 

The Genesee Country, when the white man first heard 
the roar of its Falls, was in the possession of the most numer- 
ous nation of the League of the Iroquois, — the Senecas, — 
justly proud of their distinctive title, " Ho-nan-ne-ho-ont," 
or " The Door-keeper," of the Long House. To them be- 
longed the hereditary guardianship of the Western Door. 
The grand council fire, it is true, was in the Onondaga 
Valley, but the Senecas commanded the Western Door, an 
honor still maintained by their pale faced successors, some 
may say, when our city's supremacy in Western New York 
is fairly estimated. 

"The Iroquois," says Parkman, "was the Indian of In- 
dians, a thorough savage, a finished and developed savage 
... as savage in his religion as in his life." He has been 
called " the Roman of the Western World," and the specu- 
lations of historians as to what he might have attained had 
he possessed the advantages of the ancient Greek and Ro- 
man are interesting to say the least. The ferocious vitality 
of this powerful confederacy — a federal Republic, originally 
of five nations (the Tuscaroras were admitted in 1715) — 
would in time have subjected and absorbed every other 
tribe west of the Mississippi. There is a certain satisfac- 
tion, it must be admitted, in knowing that Indian strength 
and prowess had made this region historical long before 
the bitter strife began between French and English for 
commercial monopoly. If the tusks of our mastodons lack 
by a foot or two in the length of those found elsewhere, 
and our Irondequoit and Hanford's Landing mounds may 



THE TENANT DISPOSSESSED. 9 

not compare with some in Ohio, our Seneca Indians are not 
to be ranked as second-class in any classification, even ad- 
mitting that Red Jacket did in his declining years go upon 
the lecture platform. 

The history of the Senecas is the thread for our follow- 
ing. The story of their origin, as told by Mary Jemison, 
confers an honor upon Canandaigua Lake which we may 
be pardoned for wishing had been secured for our Lower 
Falls, or even Irondequoit Bay. Mary Jemison, many of 
my readers are well aware, was the famous "White Wo- 
man of the Genesee" whose touching story was given to us 
a few years ago, as told by her to James E. Seaver and pub- 
lished by D. M. Dewey. It has recently been republished 
by the Hon. W. P. Letchworth, of Portage, with an account 
of the removal, under his superintendence, of the good wo- 
man's remains from the old mission burying-ground at Red 
Jacket, near Buffalo, to the spot where she rested when 
she first came to the Genesee Valley in 1759, — the high 
eminence on the bank of the Genesee, near the Portage 
Falls. 

No one can tell the story of the Genesee Country without 
frequent reference to Mary Jemison, a woman whose long 
and eventful life was, perhaps more than that of any wo- 
man who has ever lived in " the Pleasant Valley," a sub- 
lime illustration of heroic, self-sacrificing, yet cheerful sub- 
mission to seeming adverse destiny. 

Born on the ocean, between Ireland and Philadelphia, in 
1742 or 1743, of parents whose nationality she never knew, 
but who settled in a wilderness home on the frontier of 
Pennsylvania, she lived until about thirteen years of age 
in a Christian family, with her brothers and sisters and 
loving parents, all of whom were tomahawked in a fearful 
massacre in 1755, when she was carried captive, and by 
cruel marches, to the Ohio Country, where she was adopted 
by an Indian family, and became in time the wife of an In- 
dian, naming her children after her parents and brothers 
and sisters, but never permitted to speak the English lan- 
guage. " Remembering the charge that my dear mother 



lO ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

o-avc mc at the time I left her, whenever I chanced to be 

o 

alone I made a business of repeating my prayer, catechism, 
or something I had learned, in order that I might not for- 
get my own language. By practicing in that way I retained 
it till I came to Genesee Flats (1759) where I soon became 
acquainted with English people." 

Mary Jemison's home for nearly seventy-two years was 
in the locality where she settled in 1759, before the white 
man had attempted a settlement, on the banks of the Gene- 
see River, near Moscow and Cuylerville. She moved to the 
Buffalo Reservation in 1831, and died there in 1833. The 
good missionary who visited her in her last moments tells 
us that when the Lord's Prayer was repeated to her in 
English, Mary Jemison, wept and said : " That is the prayer 
my mother taught me and which I have forgotten so many 
years." 

Lost to her own people, refusing to leave the Senecas 
when it was possible for her to do so, bearing an Indian 
woman's hard burdens with a white woman's nature, true to 
her adopted people yet faithful to her own race, what a tie 
she proved between the two races, a very bond of peace, 
the assurance of what might have been in the past had all 
of her race possessed her gentle heart and her discernment 
of the humanity of the savage. From her we have received 
much of our most valuable information regarding the tradi- 
tions and customs of the Senecas. 

" The tradition of the Senecas," says Mary Jemison, " is 
that they broke out of the earth from a large mountain at 
the head of Canandaigua Lake ; and that mountain they 
still venerate as the place of their birth." 

Admitting the long and rather insipid legend, we natu- 
rally turn to a brief study of the Iroquois, beginning with 
their first acquaintance with the white man, who ulti- 
mately became the legal tenant of the Long House. 

In 1638 all New York west of Albany was called "The 
Unknown Land " by the Dutch, who had a trading-house at 
Albanv, and were fast getting rich in exchanging fire-arms 
and blankets and gaudy baubles for the valuable furs and 



THE TENANT DISPOSSESSED. 1 1 

skins the Iroquois brought them. These shrewd Dutchmen 
were very unlike their French contemporaries upon the St. 
Lawrence, in the fact that they were not troubled with a 
burning desire to convert the Indians, and so add a conti- 
nent to Church and King. What they had heard of the 
Iroquois made them content to leave all west of their block- 
houses in Indian possession. 

But Western New York had already found a certain 
place in European history, and perhaps it is more indebted 
to the Norman and Breton fishermen of 1503 and there- 
abouts, who dragged their nets off the coasts of New- 
foundland, than to any other source. They awakened the 
commercial spirit of France, and the enterprise of French 
merchants, who sent out in time (1608) the heroic Cham- 
plain, the Jesuit missionary close to his side. In 1578 there 
were more French fishing vessels than English, Spanish, 
or Portugese off Newfoundland. Lent and fast day in 
France demanded codfish. The fishermen were not long 
in finding out that barter with the Indians paid better than 
fishing. Hence the settlements, the explorations, the mis- 
sions of France on the St. Lawrence, and the St. Lawrence 
was the path of the earliest white visitors to Western New 
York. 

I think we may write the name of Champlain at the head 
of the list of first white visitors at the Long House, although 
his was a brief sojourn. When it is known that his object 
was not only " to unveil the mysteries of the boundless wil- 
derness and plant the Catholic faith amid its ancient bar- 
barism," but also to aid the Huron-Algonquins in subduing 
their old foe the Iroquois, we hardly wonder at his thanks- 
giving at escape from the country, badly wounded at that, 
and the subsequent feeling of the Iroquois towards the set- 
tlers of New France. 

Champlain had two memorable meetings with the Iro- 
quois. Having given his promise to lend his aid to the 
Huron-Algonquins, he made his first inroad into the coun- 
try of the Iroquois, July, 1609, ^"<^ had his first glimpse of 
them on the morning of the battle on the western shore of 



12 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the lake now bearing his name, near Crown Point, as they 
were " fihng out of their barricade, tall, strong men, some 
two hundred in number, of the boldest, fiercest warriors of 
North America. They advanced through the forest with 
a steadiness which excited his admiration. Among them 
could be seen several chiefs, made conspicuous by their tall 
plumes. Some bore shields of wood and hide, and some 
were covered with a kind of armor made of tough twigs, 
interlaced with a vegetable fibre supposed by Champlain 
to be cotton." ^ When they saw the white men in the 
ranks of their enemy they were astonished, as they well 
might be, as possibly they had never seen a pale face be- 
fore. In that pause of amazement Champlain decided what 
the relation between Iroquois and Frenchmen was to be. 
He leveled his arquebuse, and two of the chiefs fell dead. 
In an instant the forest was full of whizzing arrows, and 
the Iroquois were flying in uncontrollable terror. The al- 
lies made a prompt retreat from the scene of their triumph, 
but the Iroquois were aroused, — the tiger was foaming in 
his jungle. 

There is a significance in the coincidence that at the very 
time that Champlain was invading the country of the Iro- 
quois as a foe, Hendrick Hudson, within one hundred miles 
of the French commander, was making Indian sachems 
drunk for the first time, and that, when they had boarded 
his vessel " deporting themselves with great circumspec- 
tion." 

Champlain's second meeting with our Iroquois brought 
him nearer to the Senecas' section of the Long House. It 
was in 1615, five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plym- 
outh Rock, that, the Fries having promised to join the 
Hurons with five hundred men in a raid upon the Iroquois, 
Champlain, for the glory of France and the Church, cast in 
his fortunes with the allied savages. After feasting and 
war dances in plenty they crossed the broad bosom of On- 
tario, and passing through what is now Jefferson and Os- 
wego counties, met the Iroquois on the shore of Lake 

1 Parkman's Pioneers of France. 



THE TENANT DISPOSSESSED. 1 3 

Onondaga, the site of an Indian fort in the town of Fen- 
ner, Madison County, and there a terrible battle was fought, 
when Champlain received an arrow in his knee, another in 
his leg, and was carried away by the retreating Hurons on 
the back of a strong warrior. 

Etienne Brule, Champlain's interpreter, " pioneer of the 
pioneers," who was sent on the eve of this battle, with 
twelve Hurons, to hasten forward the five hundred Eries 
who failed to put in an appearance, made a perilous journey 
through the borders of the Iroquois, and to him belongs 
the honor of being the first known European traveler in 
Western New York. Champlain tells his story, how he 
threaded the thickest forests and darkest swamps of the 
fierce and watchful Senecas, avoiding the trails, and reach- 
ing Carantouans, somewhere in the Eries' country, near 
the western border of the Long House, in safety. 

He finally succeeded in getting the five hundred to the 
hostile town, but they were too late, the besiegers were 
gone. In attempting to return to his countrymen, after a 
winter spent in exploring the Susquehanna, he was captured 
by the Iroquois, escaped, was lost in the forest, and driven 
by starvation to throw himself upon their mercy. 

"■ Are you not one of the Frenchmen, the men of iron, 
who make war upon us } " they asked ; and when he told 
them he was something better than a Frenchman, and the 
fast friend of the Iroquois, they tied him to a tree, and tor- 
mented him with torture, until one of them seizing the Ag- 
nus Dei he wore, for he was a good Catholic, was warned 
by him that if he touched it, he and all his race would die, 
and Brule pointed to the black clouds rising against the sky. 
The Indian persisted, the storm broke in fury, and the 
miracle ends in Brule's release, dances, and feasts in his 
honor, and when he again starts to return to his country- 
men, four of the Iroquois guide him on his way. It was 
three years since he parted with his heroic leader, Cham- 
plain, when they met again each scarred with the hardships 
through which they had passed since they parted at Lake 
Simcoe. 



14 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

As early as 1615, in the May of the year that Champlain 
joined the allied tribes against the Iroquois, we find that 
four friars reached Quebec in his company, and that after 
celebrating mass they took counsel together and assigned 
to each his province in the vast mission field. Le Caron 
was sent to the Hurons, Dolbeau to the Montagnais, and 
the two other priests were to remain near Quebec. Cham- 
plain, however, as we see, did not permit the Iroquois to re- 
main forgotten. His mission to them was of fire and flame ; 
and we are not surprised that it was many years after their 
first acquaintance before the close black cassock, the rosary 
hanging from the w^aist, and the wide black hat looped up 
at the side was a familiar garb in the villages of the savage 
Iroquois, — and that not until after the unambitious Fran- 
ciscan had given place to the ardent Jesuit, who in his rest- 
less quest for subjects for baptism, above all dying children, 
endured the martyrdom of his life in the filthy wigwams, 
where, amid smoke and vermin, screeching children and 
wrangling squaws, he displayed the same heroic composure 
which did not fail him when under torture, and that some- 
times led the infuriated savages to tear out his very heart 
and devour it, that they might imbibe his contempt of suf- 
fering. 

The good friars who went, portable chapel on back, to the 
loneliest villages of the Huron-Algonquins, or to any other 
Indian tribe than those of the Iroquois, had an easy life 
compared to what the pioneer missionaries to Western 
New York necessarily endured, and yet those brave Jesuits 
were the true pioneers of our civilization. Their admis- 
sion to the Long House was, alas, too frequently as cap- 
tives, taken in war with the Hurons, when they were 
often put to a cruel death, because they were Frenchmen 
and in league with the deadly foe. The story of " the 
glorious army of martyrs," whose blood hallowed the soil 
of the Iroquois, begins within a few years at the most of 
the time of the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. 
A study of the two hostile religious movements, in whose 
antagonism lay the development of a gospel for a later 



THE TENANT DISPOSSESSED. 1 5 

day, as interwoven with civil and military annals, and their 
final effect upon the savage whose eternal salvation each 
professed to seek, must be dismissed from our considera- 
tion here. The Long House had been discovered by the 
white man. Explorer, trader, and missionary were crossing 
its threshold. The Dutch, jealous of the French traders, 
were quick to see the necessity of aiding the Iroquois in 
their strife with French and Huron. The French, by no 
means forgetting the peltries in their love for souls, would 
make all things subserve the interests of commerce. The 
advantage to be gained by France by a more direct route 
to their western trading-posts than the long circuit by Lake 
Huron and the Ottowa, for Lake Ontario was under the 
sharp eye of the Irocjuois, made the subjugation of the 
Iroquois of paramount importance. But contrary to the 
scheming of Richelieu the Iroquois long held their own 
against the French. The glory of New France had de- 
parted, the heroic Jesuits had been withdrawn, and the 
Hurons effectually humbled, before the Englishman suc- 
ceeded in making an alliance with the haughty Iroquois, a 
success growing out of the Indians' deep-seated hatred of 
the French, — an alliance culminating in the dispossession 
of the old Tenant of the Long House, and his farewell to 
the Genesee Valley in 1828. 






//, 







l6 ROCHESTER: A STORY INSTORJCAL. 



III. 

TROUBLE IN THE CAMP. 

The Englishman crowded out the Frenchman at last, and 
the Iroquois too, for that matter. The spirit of trade in 
the two nations had fought for supremacy, and the English- 
man had Avon. Between the years 1611 and 1763 twelve 
hundred Jesuit missionaries had arrived in New France. 
In 1763, they were forbidden to enter the country under 
English control, and as early as 1700 the Legislature of 
New York made a law for hanging every popish priest 
that came voluntarily into the province. No better testi- 
mony could be given of the power that the Jesuit had been 
to France. The Englishman had given the Indians a bet- 
ter bargain, and a plenty of rum besides, in the trade for 
furs and skins. He had slowly but surely built and main- 
tained his trading-posts on Lake Ontario, and had proved 
to the Indian that it was for his commercial advantage to 
trade with him. There was no end of fighting, as you all 
know, the French asserting their right to dominion, and 
the EngHsh their right to possession ; while the Iroquois 
declared a lawless independence of either party, until hope- 
lessly weakened by alliance with the English in the Revo- 
lutionary War, and severely punished and broken by Sul- 
livan in 1779. 

"The French fight for glory, " says a late writer, "the 
Germans for a living, the Russians to divert the attention 
of the people from home affairs ; but John Bull is a reason- 
able, moral, and reflecting character ; he fights to promote 
trade, to maintain peace and order on the face of the earth, 
and for the good of mankind in general. If he conquers a 



TROUBLE IN THE CAMP. 1 7 

nation it is to improve its condition in this world and se- 
cure its welfare in the next, — a highly moral aim as you 
perceive. ' Give me your territory and I will give you the 
Bible.' Exchange is no robbery." 

It was no easy matter to bring the Five Nations of New 
York into peaceable alliance with the New England colo- 
nies. Their hatred of their old foes, the Huron-Algonquins, 
helped most to bring it about after all, and Sir William 
Johnson attended to the keeping of that treaty on the part 
of the Indians with surprising success. Nor is it in the 
least to be wondered at that they took up the hatchet for 
the British in 1775. Of the 12,690 Indians employed by the 
British 1,580 were Iroquois and of these 400 were Senecas. 
Joseph Brandt, their great captain, whose character is one 
of the most interesting studies relating to our local history, 
had little reason for loving the colonists. He saw his peo- 
ple between two conflicting armies. For their sake he ad- 
vocated the alliance with the power he believed would aid 
in their elevation. He fought for the Iroquois, although 
it must be admitted that the promise of a suit of clothes, 
a brass kettle, a gun, a tomahawk, a scalping knife, a quan- 
tity of powder and lead, and a piece of gold, with the addi- 
tion of what was the inspiration of the massacre of Cherry 
Valley and Wyoming, " as much rum as water in Lake 
Ontario," was sufficient inducement for the most of his 
braves. That they performed their part of the contract 
none can deny ; nor should it surprise us that in the treaty 
made by Great Britain with the United States, when France 
had the satisfaction of seeing her rival dismembered of 
much that she had taken from her twenty years before, 
the Indian was not even named, while " the ancient coun- 
try of the Six Nations, the residence of their ancestors from 
the time far beyond their earliest traditions, was included 
in the boundary granted to the Americans." Their lands 
had been ravaged with fire and sword ; their ranks thinned 
in a conflict between brothers of a race seeking the mastery 
of their own. The one to whom they had given aid had 
left them impoverished, unthanked, — at the mercy of the 



1 8 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Other to whom the Indian had shown no mercy. What 
wonder that the Legislature of New York manifested a dis- 
position to expel the Iroquois from within its boundary, and 
that the settlers on the border demanded the measure, — 
men and women who had seen their kindred tomahawked 
by this defeated savage? 

General Washington and General Schuyler had courage 
to oppose the popular outcry, and to plead the cause of the 
Indian. It is not easy for us to-day to appreciate what 
that opposition cost them. General Washington, admit- 
ting that by the laws of conquest the Indian might be 
driven north beyond the lakes, wisely foretold that such 
action would only involve the country in Indian warfare. 
They had been deluded into the service of the crown. A 
veil must be drawn over the past, and future relations with 
the Indians established more in accordance with the funda- 
mental principles of a humane and just government. The 
Indians with shrewd foresight refused to make treaty with 
States. The thirteen fires must give them one big fire. 
Governors must not stand between them and the Big Chief. 
There were knotty questions to be settled, and in the many 
meetings between the Iroquois and the Government for the 
signing of treaties, we have interesting studies of Brandt, 
Red Jacket, and Corn Planter. Had the counsels of Brandt 
been followed, the Mohawks at least would have scorned 
to dwell within United States boundaries, for they, to use 
the language of the proud chieftain, " were determined to 
sink or swim with the English." Corn Planter, however, 
saw the wisdom of Washington's plan, and the folly of re- 
jecting it ; but Red Jacket, the great Seneca orator, "the 
young prince of the wolf tribe," was opposed to the burial 
of the hatchet, 'and made himself famous by his fiery out- 
bursts, carrying away his hearers by his eloquence rather 
than his good sense and logic.^ 

Unhappily, the treaty of peace with the Indians, like that 

1 Red Jacket was then a young man. In his later years he was well known 
by many of our pioneers, and his portrait by Mathies, a Rochester artist, used 
to grace the parlor of the old Clinton Hotel. It afterwards became the prop- 
erty of the late H. G. Warner, and is still in the possession of the family. 



jU. 



TROUBLE IN- THE CAMP. ig 

between England and the United States, did not bring 
about perfect peace after all. The Indians were brooding 
and suspicious, and Brandt did not help matters, nor the 
English either. There were terrible Indian outbreaks in 
the Ohio Country and along the Kentucky border. The In- 
dian was a disagreeable neighbor at the best. He had be- 
come poor, intemperate, and idle. There was a lack of food, 
bordering on famine at times, among the dissatisfied Iro- 
quois. Having decided that the old tenants of the Long 
House should not be dispossessed, the pale face is wist- 
fully watching the five cantons, following its net-work of 
trails, sending missionaries to its heathen, traders along its 
rivers, explorers and surveyors into its interior, consider- 
ing meanwhile the question, how the extended and uncer- 
tain hospitality of the Long House can be made more se- 
cure and comfortable. The ultimation of the partial pos- 
session of the pale face as a beginning is clear enough to 
Saxon foresight. If there should be dissension among the 
crowded tenantry, the strongest arm of course must arrange 
for a future peace. French civilization had embraced and 
cherished the Indian, and was out of pocket in the end. 
Spanish civilization had crushed him, and was scarcely bet- 
ter off. English civilization had scorned and neglected him. 
The " Yankee " would simply outwit him in a game of fair 
play. The Indian was losing prestige. The Iroquois, in 
whom we are particularly interested, was not that which 
he had been. His diminished nation was a medley of 
adopted prisoners, neutrals, Eries, and various Algonquins. 
The white man's religion had planted the Cross and the 
Lily, emblems of Christianity and France, conspicuous in 
the Long House. As early as 1656 the services of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church had been securely chanted at what is 
now Bishop Huntington's Mission, Onondaga Castle, near 
Syracuse, and in a general convocation of the tribe the 
question of adopting the Christian religion had even been 
debated. The Iroquois was a savage still, with all his 
changes ; and when we consider his relations with his in- 
vaders from the beginning, other ending of the story of his 



20 



ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 



occupancy of the Long House than that of Sullivan's Raid, 
1779, could not have been. Into the heart of the Senecas' 
country marched the avenging army, blood and devasta- 
tion in its track, surprising and effectually humiliating the 
Indian, who from that time knew his position in the Long 
House, and not many years after relinquished his occupancy 
entirely. 

The Iroquois' tomahawk, like the Iroquois himself, had 
had its day. It had made lasting record in American his- 
tory. It had defeated the Jesuit. "With the fall of the 
Hurons," says Parkman, " the occupation of the Jesuit in a 
great measure was gone." It had ruined the trade with 
New France, and had been the defense of the Dutch set- 
tlAnents. It was instrumental in giving the Americans 
the French alliance in their war for independence. It had 
done terrible work for the English, and each blow had been 
a recoil on the confederacy. It was a gory, but a defeated 
weapon, after Sullivan taught our Senecas and their confed- 
erates at Newtown, Waterloo, and in the Genesee Valley 
that their proprietorship of the Long House, or stay in it 
at all, would last no longer than their complete submission 
to the white man's authority. 











IV. 

IRONDEQUOIT BAY. 

Irondequoit Bay is preeminently the historical ground 
of our section of the Long House. 

The name, as now written, — the most successful of the 
many efforts to give, with the aid of the English alphabet, 
a correct pronunciation of the guttural Indian sounds, — is 
the name the Senecas gave it before the Frenchman's canoe 
sought the sheltering harbor afforded by the sand-bar and 
the close encircling hills. The literal meaning, say the 
best authorities, is "the lake turns aside." " Teoronto " 
was another name the Indians gave it, meaning " the place 
where the waves breathe and die, or gasp and expire." 
" Gerundegut " was its appellation in the days of Roches- 
terville, or, what was a trifle more musical, " Rundicut." 
The names we find for it in the venerable French Relations 
must have made the canoe correspondent of those days 
averse to mentioning it at all, and we only wonder that the 
name the French bestowed upon it at an early day, " Fort 
des Sables," was not longer retained. Here are some of 
the names we find in old French records, and comparatively 
modern ones, for Irondequoit Bay : O-nyui-da-on-da-gwat, 
Kaniatarontagouat, Ganniagatarontagouat (that was Father 
Lamberville's way of spelling it when he did not get his al- 
phabet mixed a little in trying to be exact, and write of 
Paniaforontogouat). 

The old sand-bar, fickle and shifting as it has ever been, 
has a permanent place in our history, whether we accept 
among the many interpretations of the present name for 
the picturesque inlet the one our poets like best, " where 



22 ROCHESTER: A STORY IHSTORICAL. 

the tired waters sink to sleep," or what the matter-of-fact 
student of the Seneca language declares it to be, "a jam of 
flood wood." It is lovely under any name and interpreta- 
tion, and it may be doubted if there is a spot in The Pleas- 
ant Valley more tenderly associated with the sweetest mem- 
ories of us all. 

Long after the mound-builders left their memorial upon 
the sandy headlands, and contemporaneous with the advent 
of the European among the tribes west of the Iroquois, 
the Seneca squaws hoeing their corn, beans, and pumpkins, 
or boiling their succotash in the neighborhood of their pali- 
saded village or landing-place on the east side of the bay, 
at the picturesque spot we call " the Dugway," may have 
seen the first white man's canoe gliding cautiously up 
from the lake, and in the absence of their braves on the 
war-path, those Seneca squaws may have broiled a venison 
steak for the pale faces, and so opened the uncertain trade 
subsequently carried on between Iroquois and Frenchman 
in Irondequoit Bay. The Frenchman discovered at an 
early day the importance of the post. Many trails into the 
interior converged there. It was a favorite hunting-ground. 
In the long, perilous voyage by canoe from the St. Law- 
rence to the Huron Country which not a few traders would 
venture in spite of the terrible Iroquois, the harbor of Iron- 
dequoit Bay was a desired haven. The Iroquois hated the 
Frenchman as he did the Hurons and the Algonquins, but 
he loved the Frenchman's " brandie " and the " blew cloths 
and red," and the shining trinkets to be got with " pel- 
letrie." 

In 1625 we find the Franciscan missionaries on the west 
bank of the Niagara River. Religious zeal and commercial 
ambition had already surmounted, in the country of the 
Hurons, what made the dangerous canoe passage along the 
south shore of Ontario a tempting crusade. That the dar- 
ing to follow that route cost the Hfe of many a bold trader 
and devout priest no one can doubt, nor that it was a much 
traveled route notwithstanding. In 1640 we find the Iro- 
quois in constant warfare with the French. In 1645 their 



IRONDEQUOIT BAY. 23 

Strife is fiercest with the Hurons, and in 1650 it is all over 
with the Hurons, and the Iroquois is their merciless victor. 
About 1633 they had, by their tomahawks, effectually ended 
the neutrality of the Neutrals, the Indian tribe whose do- 
main lay between them and their foe, and in whose wig- 
wams the fierce Hurons and relentless Iroquois had met on 
neutral ground. That decisive battle had been fought near 
the present city of Buffalo, and the remaining Neutrals, as 
captives, were in time absorbed in the confederacy, — a fact 
explaining how the Jesuit missionary, with whom they were 
well acquainted, found admission to the Long House.^ In 
1669 La Salle, on his first visit to Irondequoit Bay, found 
Father Fremin at the Seneca village, now Bough ton Hill, 
in the town of Victor. In 1678, when the famous explorer 
went sailing from La Chine to Niagara, he again stopped at 
Irondequoit Bay, and once more visited the principal village 
of the Senecas, where Father Gamier was laboring. Park- 
man gives graphic descriptions of these events. Father 
Lamberville was at Onondaga Castle in 1684, where he was 
a zealous missionary for sixteen years. Father Hennepin 
was associated with La Salle in his expedition to Niagara 
Falls, and it was Father Hennepin who made the first 
sketch of the cataract, and wrote the first description on 
record. A study of the unique drawing naturally leads us 
to regret that he did not leave us a sketch of Irondequoit 
Bay, or of the mouth of the river, where his party ex- 
changed brandie for beaver skins with the natives. " Be- 
twixt the lakes Ontario and Erie," I give only the most 
notable clause of his description, " there is a vast and pro- 
digious cadence of water which falls down after a surprising 
■ and astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does 
not afford its parallel. 'Tis true, Italy and Switzerland 
boast of some such things, but we may well say they are 
sorry patterns when compared with this of which we now 
speak. At the foot of this horrible precipice we meet with 

1 The Dutch at Albany had already interfered in vain for the release of 
Jesuit missionaries taken prisoners by the Iroquois in the defeat of the Hu- 
rons. 



24 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the river Niagara, which is not above a quarter of a league 
broad, but is wonderfully deep in some places. It is so 
rapid above this descent that it violently hurries down the 
wild beasts while endeavoring to pass it to feed on the 
other side, and not being able to withstand the force of its 
current, which inevitably casts them headlong above six 
hundred feet high." 

Slowly but surely as the years went by, Frenchman and 
EngHshman encroached more and more upon the Long 
House and upon each other. Trading-posts in the Senecas' 
country must be maintained at any cost. The English- 
man undersold the Frenchman, and the Frenchman in re- 
taliation made Irondequoit Bay one of the places where he 
landed arms and provisions to be carried into the interior, 
— to the foes of the Iroquois. This naturally enraged the 
Senecas. The French canoes were seized on one occasion 
and their cargo appropriated. The owners were released 
however, for a wonder, with terrible threats of what would 
happen if they repeated the experiment. That was consid- 
ered sufificient provocation for war by Louis XIV., and war 
upon the Iroquois was declared at once; more than that, his 
Majesty ordered that some of the Iroquois chiefs should be 
captured and sent to France to work in the galleys, for it 
was high time, thought he, that France should make an im- 
pression upon the haughty Iroquois unless she was disposed 
to let the English crowd her out of New France entirely. 
The time had come when the Iroquois must be subdued, 
and their trade with the Englishman ended, and the Iro- 
quois was in no gentle mood pondering the subject of the 
Frenchman's crossing his territory, helping his bitterest 
enemies to arms and ammunition. Why should he not 
trade with the Englishman if he chose .'' English rum was 
as good as French brandie, and had he no right to make 
the best bargain } " Neither of the Pale Faces is the Red 
Man's Master," said the Indian, hardly comprehending the 
true state of things. 

So when the Marquis De Nonville, the Governor of New 
France, moved up the St. Lawrence, June, 1687, at the 



IRONDEQUOIT BAY. 25 

head of an army of some fifteen hundred Frenchmen and 
five hundred Indians, " to humble the Senecas/' he was 
striking a blow at the commercial interest of England, and 
at her claim to the territory of the Iroquois. At Fort 
Cataracouy (Kingston) he sent for the saintly Father Lam- 
berville, the devoted missionary to the Oneidas, to bring 
a delegation of Indian chiefs to his headquarters. Father 
Lamberville, relying upon De Nonville's word that it was 
to be a council of peace, easily persuaded the chiefs to ac- 
company him. Fifty of them were at once secured, put in 
irons, and sent to France for galley-slaves, the heart-broken 
Father Lamberville narrowly escaping with his life from 
his betrayed Indians. 

At the same time, the western Indians, ancient enemies 
of the Iroquois, were at De Nonville's command hastening 
to meet the French army at Irondequoit Bay. They had 
Tonti at their head, — Tonti the companion of La Salle. De 
Nonville had described him to the King as "a lad of great 
enterprise and boldness who undertakes considerable." The 
main army came down from the St. Lawrence by slow 
stages, encamping on the shore at night, making a halt 
where Pultneyville now is. 

We cannot learn that it was by shrewd management on 
the part of De Nonville that his eastern and western army 
met in the Bay upon the same day and hour, July 10, 1687. 
How vividly we can see them approaching each other, — 
the long lines of bateaux and canoes coming round Nine 
Mile Point, the naked and tattooed savages shouting shrilly 
to each other, the stately retinue of the Marquis, the vo- 
ciferous greeting of the two armies, when the western di- 
vision, following the Indian trail along shore, came within 
sight of the fleet. Up the bay, between the lovely head- 
lands, sailed the proud De Nonville, two hundred bateaux 
and as many canoes in his train. The canoes of that day 
carried oftentimes as many as twenty-eight men, " sol- 
diers, valets, and cooks besides." A palisade fort was at 
once thrown up where they landed, the precise location of 
which is a disputed point. As it was for the protection 



26 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of the water craft and military stores, we may reasonably 
believe that the old Indian landing on the east side of the 
head of Irondequoit Bay above the Newport House and the 
Float Bridge, at the "Dug Way," where the Indian trail 
from Victor came down to the water, was the Frenchman's 
landing-place. 

" Never had Canada seen, and perhaps never will see, a 
similar spectacle," wrote the French war correspondent, 
" A camp composed of one fourth regular troops, with the 
General's suite ; one fourth French militia, in four battal- 
ions, with the gentry of the country ; one fourth Christian 
Indians ; and finally a crowd of all the barbarous nations, 
naked, tattooed, and painted over the body with all sorts of 
figures, wearing horns on their heads, queues down their 
backs, and armed with arrows. We could hear during the 
night a multitude of languages, and songs and dances in 
every tongue." 

That was a gay night on Irondequoit Bay, gayest of any 
on its record. The Senecas were not so ignorant of the 
movements of the French army as was supposed. They 
had seen the fleet on the lake. Hidden in the woods they 
had tracked the western army. Swift runners had warned 
every village of the danger. They had even made over- 
tures for peace. "The devil take you," had been the 
Frenchman's response, and he took up his march into the 
interior, leaving four hundred men in the fort on Ironde- 
quoit Bay. We can imagine, if the mosquitoes of those 
nights were anything like those of these, that the curses of 
those Frenchmen were not all spent upon the " Sennekees." 
Those who care to read a minute detail of what followed 
De Nonville's appearance in Irondequoit Bay, — how the 
Senecas burnt their own villages and sent their helpless to 
places of safety, luring their invaders into an ambuscade ; 
the bravery of the desperate Frenchmen, the panic among 
the allied Indians, the defeat of the invaders, in short, al- 
though De Nonville before leaving took possession in the 
name of his king of the Senecas' country, — can find the 
story most graphically told, entertaining us by its contra- 



IRONDEQUOIT BA V. 2/ 

dictions, in De Nonville's official report, La Hontan's ac- 
count, and that of the English in several histories as de- 
rived from the Indians. L'Abbe de Belmont's History of 
Paris, a rare old book, gives a sprightly account of the 
event. A condensation of these various descriptions may 
be found in the Appendix of Turner's "Phelps and Gor- 
ham's Purchase," p. 465. 

The amount of the long and interesting story is briefly 
this. The Senecas had fled to the Cayugas, whither their 
foe thought best not to pursue them, to the great chagrin 
of the western Indians, who were disgusted with having 
turned out for the burning of a few bark cabins, "that 
could be rebuilt in four days," and to destroy corn that the 
confederates would make good. " Six days we were occu- 
pied in cutting down Indian corn with our swords," wrote a 
Frenchman. " We found in all the villages horses, cattle, 
and a multitude of swine." They naturally consoled them- 
selves by telling very big stories of the standing grain they 
destroyed, the beans, and the swine. 

Between the boasting accounts given by the French and 
the disparaging reports of the English, it is perhaps as well 
to accept Hosmer's " Yonnondio" as the truth of the mat- 
ter. " Two prisoners only were made by the invaders, old 
men who were discovered in the castle, and who were cut 
to pieces and boiled into soup for De Nonville's allies." 
..." The loss of the French was one hundred men and 
ten Indians. The Senecas had about eighty warriors slain." 
"Thirteen captives were sent to France as gaUey-slaves," 
say English reports. This disagrees with De Nonville's re- 
port to the French Minister. " You ordered me to send 
you the prisoners we took. You have perceived, my Lord, 
it was impossible for us to make any among the Senecas." 

The white man who, years after, ploughed the land where 
this battle was fought, reaped a practical benefit ; for no 
less than three hundred hatchets and upwards of three 
thousand pounds of old iron were found, more than suffi- 
cient to defray the expense of the clearing. The early 
settler in the locality found many relics, — bill axes, gun- 



28 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

barrels and trimmings, silver crosses and coins. Turner 
tells us that as late as 1848 two five franc pieces were 
ploughed up on the hill north of Boughton Hill. " A little 
east of the Pittsford road, near the old Indian trail, on the 
farm of Asahel Boughton, there was unearthed, a few years 
ago, a half bushel of iron balls, about the size of musket 
balls. In the early years of the settlement of Victor, the 
most of the iron the settlers used was the old French axes 
the plough would expose." 

. When that fleet of bateaux and canoes withdrew from 
Irondequoit Bay the French must have looked back at the 
sand-bar and the hills with a humiliating sense of the defeat 
they were slow to acknowledge. The Senecas had gone to 
the Fnglish, the spies reported, and the English had been 
ready to help them. They had hardly seen the warriors who 
surprised them. They had been met by a few old men and 
squaws, and a few hogs and cattle. 

From the headlands of Irondequoit Bay we see them 
hastening westward to Niagara, where they built a fort, and 
blustered mightily about exterminating the Iroquois. The 
Senecas returned at once to their trampled cornfields and 
ruined villages, the confederacy making good their loss. 
The following summer, after a by no means peaceful in- 
terim, we see Irondequoit Bay again covered with canoes, 
for the Iroquois are still on the war-path against the hated 
Frenchman. Twelve hundred braves are hurrying to at- 
tack the island of Montreal, destroying everything belong- 
ing to the enemy that lies in their path. Even as the 
French cut down the Senecas' corn with their swords, the 
Senecas are cutting down hundreds of helpless and sur- 
prised pale faces, burning houses, sacking plantations, and 
torturing prisoners. The remembrance of that invasion 
of Irondequoit Bay and of their chieftains in the galleys 
of the French king was the inspiration of the massacre. 
" Only three," it is on record, " of the confederates were 
lost in all this scene of misery and desolation. Noth- 
ing but the ignorance of the Indians in the art of at- 
tacking fortified places saved Canada from being utterly 



IRONDEQUOIT BA Y. 29 

cut off." To make a long story short, lest we wander too 
far from Irondequoit Bay, the captive chiefs were sent 
home from France, handsomely laden with presents, and 
" the fierce and insolent Senecas " were no nearer utter 
extermination than before. 

The court of France had its eye upon Irondequoit Bay 
without doubt, when in 1718 it sent forth an order to estab- 
lish " the trade for the King in the circuit of Lake Ontario, 
and to build magazines on the south side thereof," and in 
1719 Sieur Joncaire was sent to "try the minds of the Sen- 
nekees " upon the subject of building a house on their 
lands, and the defense of it in case the English should have 
a different plan. Fine presents were sent to the Senecas, 
belts of wampum, powder, lead, and above all " brandie." 
A favorable answer was sent back by the crafty Senecas, 
which was followed by several visits from Joncaire, *' in a 
canoe laden with merchandise." We read that, because of 
the ice, he was detained one winter at the river Gascon- 
chiagon (Genesee), his detention doing " an abundance of 
damage to the trading because that the magazine at Ni- 
agara was without merchandise until the spring ; " and we 
incline to believe he put into port at Irondequoit Bay, and 
followed the old Indian trail from its head to the Genesee 
River, the spot where the Canadian Indians always landed 
when, from friendly motives or otherwise, they would push 
into the interior. 

Irondequoit Bay did not escape the eye of the English- 
man. The first settlement of an English colony in West- 
ern New York was made on its shore. October 16, 1721, 
Governor Burnet writes to the Board of Trade, that in order 
to improve " the present good humor " of the Indians he 
had spent five hundred pounds upon a settlement at Iron- 
dequoit Bay, " whither there are now actually gone a com- 
pany of ten persons," a son of Peter Schuyler heading the 
expedition. 

"This company," he wrote, "have undertaken to remain 
in this settlement, and that never above two shall be ab- 
sent at once, and that these have the sole encouragement 



30 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

at present out of the public money ; yet there is nothing 
that hinders as many more to go and settle there or any- 
where else on their own account as please. . . . This place 
is indisputably in the Indians' possession, and lies very con- 
venient for all the far Indians to come on account of trade, 
from which the French at Niagara will not easily hinder 
them ; . . . they may easily slip by them in canoes. . . . 
This, my Lords, is the beginning of a great trade with all 
the Indians upon the lakes ; and the cheapness of all our 
goods, except powder, above the French will by degrees 
draw all that trade to us, which cannot better appear than 
by the French having found it worth while to buy our 
goods at Albany to sell again to the Indians." 

We must inchne to believe it was to this post on Ironde- 
quoit Bay the French Minister referred in a letter to the 
Court of France, May, 1725. The news of this establish- 
ment on soil always considered as belonging to France 
appeared to him the more important as it made the pre- 
serving of the post at Niagara more difficult. " In losing 
Niagara the colony is lost," as well as the trade with the 
upper Indians, "who go the more willingly to the English 
since they obtain goods there much cheaper and get as 
much brandy as they like, which we cannot absolutely dis- 
pense furnishing the upper country Indians, though with 
prudence, if it be desirable to prevent them carrying their 
furs and surrendering themselves to the English." 

When Pitt, in the English Parliament (1758), urged 
his measure for a vigorous and decisive campaign against 
the French in North America, the prompt annihilation of 
French dominion, and an end of the long trouble about 
lake supremacy and Indian trade, he brought Irondequoit 
Bay into history again ; for the British army in splendid 
array, with a large force of Iroquois, — the Senecas almost 
alone standing off from the contest, or remaining in French 
alliance, — were soon sailing over Lake Ontario for Fort 
Niagara : " two British regiments, a detachment of the 
Royal Artillery, a battalion of Royal Americans, two battal- 
ions of New York Provincials, and a large force of Indian 



IRONDEQUOIT BAY. 



31 



allies under the command of Sir William Johnson," eclips- 
ing completely the glory of the French army under De 
Nonville that came sailing round Nine Mile Point some 
seventy years before. What with the gay trappings of the 
lordly Britons, and the gayer trappings of the more lordly 
Indians, Irondequoit Bay must have been in a glare of 
color that early summer eve when this armament encamped 
on her shores. How much the success of the expedition 
in defeating the French was owing to that night's camp on 
Irondequoit Bay the historian has left unnoted ; but that 
the inspiration for the victory, which culminated in the re- 
linquishing of the hold of France uj^on Western New York, 
and the ultimate alliance of the French with the Amer- 
ican rebels in the Revolution, was largely if not wholly the 
result of a night spent at Irondequoit Bay, we who know 
the weird magical influence of the place are inclined to 
persist in believing. 




Hennepin's Picture of Niagara 



32 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 



V. 

THE CITY OF TRYON, ON IRONDEQUOIT BAY. 

The Nile has its Cheops, and the Euphrates its Babylon, 
and Irondequoit Bay its city of Tryon. 

Rochester looks back to Falls Town, i8 12-18, proud 
of its antiquity. It may be doubted if many of our good 
people know that in 1799, when nothing but a disreputa- 
ble mill stood at the Genesee Ford near the Falls, Tryon 
Town, or the city of Tryon, had been laid out, and was 
seemingly on the high road to prosperity. Four families 
had settled in " the metropolis," and one of them, Asa Day- 
ton, was mine host of the popular tavern, while Stephen 
Lusk was at the head of the leather concern, leaving John 
Boyd, and Asa Dunbar, a mulatto, to look more particularly 
after the general commercial interests of the town. 

Tryon Town was to be the queen city of the fair Genesee 
Country. Tryon Town was to be the great shipping port. 
Her prophets looked over the tranquil bay and saw it teem- 
ing with heavily freighted vessels, each one a tributary to 
the wealth of their merchants, a visible throbbing of the 
commercial heart of Canada. The first flour shipped from 
Western New York to Montreal went out from Tryon Town. 
Village lots were laid out and sold, a warehouse five sto- 
ries high was built, a mill costing fifteen thousand dollars, 
an ashery, and a distillery. The customers for its "store" 
were from a wide section of country. The solitary settler 
over at Oak Orchard Creek thought nothing of running 
down to Tryon Town to barter his black salts for a paper of 
needles, a bit of tea, or possibly a deer-skin, in exchange 
for a bottle of " sure cure for chills and fever." It was the 



THE CITY OF TKYON, ON IRONDEQUOIT BAY. 33 

resort of hunters and trappers, both white and Indian ; and 
in 1 801, when Silas Losea set up his blacksmith shop, and 
a Lynch Court was established, and Oliver Culver was 
shipping one hundred and eight barrels of pearlash a year 
to Montreal, and ashes brought one shilling a bushel in 
trade at Tryon's store, the " boom " of the city of Tryon 
was at its highest pitch, to die out, alas ! as suddenly and 
completely as many a real estate boom of to-day. 

Maude, an English traveler in Western New York in 1800, 
wrote thus of Tryon Town : " There was a city laid out 
at the head of Irondequoit Bay, as formerly supplies from 
New York destined for our western posts were sent to the 
head of that bay, . . . there, freighted in bateaux, to proceed 
through Lake Ontario to Niagara River ; thence to be taken 
across the portage to Fort Schlosser ; and there reem- 
barked to proceed up the Niagara River, through Lake 
Erie," etc. The city was laid out at the head of the bay. 

Tryon Town is a thing of the past. It is as if it had 
never been. With the development of the water power of 
the Falls its sun sank to rise no more. 

Tryon Town was one of the five aspirants in Monroe 
County alone, not including Frankford, for the honor of the 
metropolis of the Genesee Valley. These aspirants, look- 
ing scorn at the " God-forsaken mud-hole at the Falls," 
were, besides Tryon Town, Carthage, Hanford's Landing, 
Castle Town, and Pittsford. Sodus, in Wayne County, with 
its unsurpassed harbor, and the lavish expenditure of the 
Pultney estate, seemed likely at one time to make Monroe 
County secondary to Wayne. To have said that Falls 
Town might possibly bear off the municipal honors had 
provoked derision indeed. Anything but Falls Town would 
do that. Pittsford was a pretty village long before Falls 
Town was hardly better than a swamp. Carthage and Han- 
ford's Landing were fierce rivals for metropolitan ascen- 
dancy, while Castle Town, — what should hinder Castle 
Town, with Colonel Wadsworth's influence in its behalf, 
from becoming the head centre of what was bound to be 
the greatest wheat raising district in the country? "And 
3 



34 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

where was Castle Town? " some of you are asking, — some 
of you who live within sight of its ancient borders. The 
place goes by the name of " the Rapids " to-day, and we 
smile at its old time presumption ; but there are not a few 
among us who can remember when the steamboat left 
Rochester every morning for Geneseo, stopping, if neces- 
sary, at Castle Town, and when the Durham boats added 
to its activity, to say nothing of the cheery horn of the daily 
stage. If the Erie Canal had crossed the river at Castle 
Town, " some things," as Sam Patch used to say, " might 
have been done as well as others." 

It may well be questioned if Cleveland and Detroit are 
not largely indebted to the city of Tryon } If the great 
oaks that from little acorns grow are under any obligations 
whatever to said little acorns, Cleveland and Detroit must 
own that one of the sources of their early prosperity was 
in the ambitious trading-post on Irondequoit Bay. Oliver 
Culver, famous among our best pioneers, superintended that 
big ashery at Tryon Town for three years. He saved his 
money, and in 1804 bought up a large share of the goods 
the Tryon Town merchant was glad to sell at a low fig- 
ure, and with these he went to Cleveland. There was but 
one trader before him. Indians brought him their furs, and 
the Pennsylvania settlers drove their pack-horses to his 
cabin laden with whiskey and brandy, butter, cheese, and 
honey. He could sell salt at three dollars a bushel, and his 
Tryon Town goods brought a quick sale and large profits. 
The suppressed spirit of the disappointed city seemed to 
liave found an outlet for development. From Cleveland 
Oliver Culver went to Detroit, where he did well in apples 
and white fish. He returned to Western New York a few 
vears after to buy his broad farm lands, and settle down for 
life. Why are not Cleveland and Detroit indebted to Tryon 
Town, and shall we not establish its just claim for recog- 
nition .-• 

The Float Bridge is to the physiognomy of Irondequoit 
Bay what a pair of spectacles would have been to Red 
Jacket. It is more convenient than picturesque, and pos- 



THE CITY OF TRYON, ON IRONDEQUOIT BA Y. 



35 



sibly all who cross over it, or fish from its mossy planks, do 
not know the plucky enterprise of the men who built the 
first Float Bridge, or revised and amended the old one a 
few years later. The name of John McGonegal should be 
on its foundation stones, if it had those appendages ordi- 
narily necessary to a bridge. It is hard saying just what the 
Float Bridge depends upon for a foundation. Brush, logs, 
flags, and muck are made somehow to hold it up ; for the 
stories the engineers tell as to the amount of dirt that was 
dumped into that bay, and all for little use when a solid 
foundation was sought for, makes the average fisherman 
even stare with amazement. When the Plank Road Com- 
pany, in 1849, tried to raise the eastern embankment some 
eighteen inches, it was estimated it would cost about ^20. 
Night after night the bay swallowed all the dirt that was 
drawn on during the day ; and when something akin to per- 
manence was gained at last, the elevation had cost ^700. 
Its history has not been as well preserved as we could wish, 
but from all we can learn it was first built about 1836, as a 
private enterprise, and at great trouble and expense, con- 
sidering it was a float bridge after all. It opened a new 
thoroughfare for our city, and is the highway of a large 
section of country. It is one of the available good fishing 
places for the boy who delights in a walk of three or four 
miles with a rod on his shoulder, and has always been the 
favorite resort of the embryo Isaak Walton. 










•A 



36 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



VI. 

THE GENESEE OF THE SENEGAS. 

Irondequoit Bay had its city of Tryon in 1799. Its 
twin brother, " The Mouth of the Genesee," was then a 
wide spreading marsh, with Httle promise of a city on its 
banks at the Upper Falls. 

"The Little Senecas " River ran through its forest pri- 
mceval, and bold indeed was the invader who followed its 
windings into the interior from the lake, while the Senecas 
were lords of * the domain. The Genesee was the strength 
of the Senecas. We find it so spoken of in an old colonial 
document, November 12, 1685. 

" The Senecas being the strongest are the most insolent. 
The idea must not be entertained that this nation can ever 
be reduced except by being in a position to pounce upon 
them." This proposed pouncing was rendered most diffi- 
cult, it was affirmed, because of the navigation of their river, 
the Genesee, " which is full of rapids and cascades, impas- 
sable except by portages, independent of the distance." 

" The Gasgonsage " was one of its early Indian names, 
meaning " Something alive in the kettle." Charlevoix's 
description, written as early as 1721, is of interest to the 
dwellers along its banks to-day. 

" It is very narrow, and of little depth at its entrance into 
the lake. A little higher it is one hundred and forty yards 
wide, and they say it is deep enough for the largest vessels. 
Two leagues from its mouth we are stopped by a fall which 
appears to be full sixty feet high, and one hundred and forty 
yards wide. A musket shot higher we find a second of the 
same width, but not so high by two thirds. Half a league 



THE GENESEE OF THE SENEGAS. 37 

farther a third, one hundred feet high, good measure, and 
two hundred yards wide. After this we meet with several 
rapids, and after having sailed fifty leagues farther we per- 
ceive a fourth fall, every way equal to the third. The course 
of this river is one hundred leagues, and when we have gone 
up it about sixty leagues we have but ten to go by land, 
turning to the right to arrive at the Ohio, called La Belle 
Rivihe ; the place where we meet with it is called Ganos, 
where an officer worthy of credit (Joncaire) assured me he 
had seen a fountain, the water of which is like oil, and has 
the taste of iron. He said that a little farther there is 
another fountain just like it, and that the savages make 
use of its water to appease all manner of pains." 

This is perhaps the earliest advertisement of the famous 
oil of the spring in Cuba, Alleghany County, on record. 

The distance from the third fall to the fourth, from Roch- 
ester to Portage, seemed somewhat longer to Charlevoix 
than it really was, but his inaccuracy is readily forgiven, 
considering the discomforts of the journey. He makes no 
allusion to the fall that used to be just below the old ford, 
about where the aqueduct now stands. That fall was some 
fifteen feet high, and was removed when the foundation 
stones of the aqueduct were laid, and when other large en- 
terprises requiring stone were going on, leaving a gradual, 
shelving slope in the river bed. So much have our de- 
mands narrowed the old bed of the river we cannot wonder 
or complain at an occasional assertion of its rights. Front 
Street, the old settlers tell us, used to be a high water creek, 
a considerable island lying between it and the main chan- 
nel. Once, the width of the Falls was their chief beauty. 
Daniel Webster, it will never be forgotten, immortalized 
their height in that memorable speech of his to our citizens. 

" Men of Rochester, I am glad to see you, and I am glad 
to see your noble city. Gentlemen, I saw your Falls, which 
I am told are one hundred and fifty feet high. That is a 
very interesting fact. Gentlemen, Rome had her Caesar, her 
Scipio, her Brutus, but Rome in her proudest days never 
had a waterfall one hundred and fifty feet high ! Gentle- 



38 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

men, Greece had her Pericles, her Demosthenes, and her 
Socrates, but Greece in her palmiest days never had a wa- 
terfall one hundred and fifty feet high ! Men of Rochester, 
go on. No people ever lost their liberties who had a water- 
fall one hundred and fifty feet high ! " 

But to return to Charlevoix's description. 

Some of those first reports from the Genesee Country 
were not marvels of accuracy to say the least, as when one 
official correspondent wrote (1790) of the total exemption 
from all periodical disorders, particularly the fever and ague, 
** which does not prevail in the Genesee Country on account 
of the rising grounds and fine situations." 

The mouth of the river as we see it to-day, with its piers 
and light-house, its dry beach on either side, bears little re- 
semblance to the wide marshy channels, a kind of swampy 
bay, through which the Senecas used to glide in their elm 
bark canoes. When "Walker, the Ranger" built his soli- 
tary log-cabin on the east bank about 1779, ^^^ ^^^-^ rnost 
adverse to having neighbors within twenty miles even, a 
sailing boat of any pretension whatever could not enter the 
Genesee " save when the wind was right." In digging the 
cellar of the Spencer House a few years ago the stern of an 
old schooner was found, record of a wreck at least a hun- 
dred years before. Underneath it an Indian paddle that 
crumbled when touched. The fame of the beauty of the 
Genesee River, its falls and picturesque gorge, preceded by 
many years that of its extensive hydraulic power. The 
fame of its fevers and rattlesnakes was possibly in advance 
of either. Rattlesnakes and fever and ague gave it an 
unattractive individuality, in spite of its abundance of deer 
and other game. The beaver, forever associated with 
Father Hennepin's brief visit in 1679, was nearly extinct 
when the Senecas gave up their hunting-grounds. Ikit 
there were bears, otters, musk-rats, and minks, wild ducks 
and geese, and not a few wild cats or panthers. 

The old trails of the Iroquois that crossed the bridgeless 
Genesee are still our highways. Their old ford at the 
Falls is the heart of our metropolis. State Street and Lake 



THE GENESEE OF THE SENEGAS. 39 

Avenue is an old trail, and Indian Trail Avenue, in IMt. 
Hope, is the veritable path the red man followed from the 
pinnacle in his thoroughfare to the river. 

But the Genesee in this locality failed to attract the set- 
tler long after Avon had a bridge, and Wadsworth's lands 
had been largely taken up. The tourist to Niagara Falls 
by canoe, or on horseback, if not on foot, endured greater 
peril and hardship for the picturesque than he was inclined 
to suffer for the settlement of new lands. The Genesee 
Falls were beautiful to contemplate, providing one's stay in 
their neighborhood was not protracted, and we hear of the 
heroic hardihood of famous foreigners and eminent Ameri- 
cans, who counted sleeping one night at Walker's, and 
eating fried raccoon, as nothing to "the thrills of ecstasy" 
the scenery afforded. Aaron Burr and Theodosia made 
the journey to Niagara on horseback in 179S, he turning- 
aside at Avon to see the Genesee Falls. In 1797, Louis 
Philippe, with courtly gentlemen of high degree, endured 
the perilous ride through the forest from Canandaigua to 
see the wonderful cataracts of which they had heard so 
much. Mrs. Orange Stone, who lived in the old house still 
to be seen just beyond " the Rock and Tree," near the junc- 
tion of East Avenue and Clover Street, had unmistakably 
the first royal dinner party in the Genesee Country, for the 
distinguished gentlemen sat down to her table on their way. 
It is barely possible that there may yet be found in the old 
house, standing corner-wise to the road, something, though, 
it be only a door latch, that came in contact with the royal 
exiles, who, we are told, made their journey from Canan- 
daigua to Elmira on foot along an Indian trail. There, an 
American bateau was built for them, and through the Che- 
mung and Susquehanna they sailed down to Harrisburg. 

Stealthily as the Senecas guarded the door of the Long- 
House the white man crossed its threshold and finally sat 
down by its fires. He had come to stay. Civilization and 
barbarism were looking each other squarely in the eye. 
The white man said he would give the red man so many 
dollars for a part of the Long House. The red man thought 



40 



ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



well of the offer, but he did not like to sell west of the 
Genesee River. He would part with two millions and 
more of acres on the east side, but the west must remain 
his own. " But," says the white man, " I must build a mill 
at the ford where you as well as the settlers can grind your 
corn. What is all this tract to me without a mill, and what 
is a mill without a yard 1 " Grinding corn in a stump mortar 
had its inconveniences even for an Indian. So the white 
man staked out his mill yard, twelve miles by twenty-five, 
reaching from what is now Caledonia to Lake Ontario, from 
the Genesee twelve miles wide, and the Indian was content. 
What did the red man know about a white man's necessity 
in the way of a mill yard ? 

When the mill was built at the ford, a shanty twenty- 
six by thirty feet, the Indian went down to take a look at 
it, naturally expecting to see something in harmony with 
the size of the yard required. " Ouoat ! " was his mut- 
tered surprise, adding " kauskon chicos ! " which in Seneca 
meant "waterfall." "Waterfall" was the name they called 
Mr. Phelps, the purchaser, ever after. Once when his agent 
denied them whiskey, telling them it was " all gone," " no, 
no," they persisted, "Genesee Falls never dry." 

And so it came to pass that the Falls on the Little Sene- 
cas River and that part of the Old Long House surround- 
ing them passed into the hands of the New Tenant, who had 
had, as we all know, a sorry time in getting a foothold at all 
since he first crept in with covetous intent. 




Stump Mortar. 



THE TITLE DEED OF THE NEW TENANT. 4.I 



VII. 

THE TITLE DEED OF THE NEW TENANT. 

That undisputed axiom, unpalatable as it is to the weak 
in their struggle for survival, "no one may claim as his right 
what he cannot defend," had fullest illustration in what 
came to pass after the discovery of the New World by the 
white man. Discovery and possession were one and the 
same thing, and the royal patrons of the adventurers who 
planted the standard of their king on many a bleak head- 
land of the Atlantic coast proceeded at once, in gratitude 
for the same, to make generous gifts of the new territory to 
colonists, with charters for government. What so easy as 
royal largess of millions and millions of acres of wild lands, 
when Indian right and preoccupancy were as nothing, and 
geographical lines of still less account } As might have 
been expected, the same territory was in several instances 
given to different parties, and colonial claims overlapped 
each other, as in the case of the lands in the State of New 
York, including "the Phelps and Gorham Purchase," the 
tract in which lies the section claiming our special interest. 

Probably the kings of Great Britain knew as little of the 
geography of North America as some English subjects of 
to-day, who ask if the Rocky Mountains can be seen from 
Boston, and possibly it mattered little to them who in the 
end should carry off the prize, if they might have the sat- 
isfaction of tossing it into the arena. In 1620 the King of 
Great Britain gave to the Plymouth Colony a wide strip of 
country, an immense back yard, several degrees of latitude 
in width, and reaching, of course, " from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific Ocean." William and Mary in 169 1 granted a sec- 



42 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

oncl charter for this same territory, changing the bounda- 
ries somewhat, but the matter of a few millions of acres was 
insignificant in such lavish transactions. Charles I., in 
1663, granted to the Duke of York and Albany the prov- 
ince of New York, and that meant not only the present 
States of New York and New Jersey, but westward indefi- 
nitely from a line twenty miles east of the Hudson River, 
and from the Atlantic Ocean north to Canada. Here are 
two royal grants covering the same land, a large portion of 
Western New York. Then there was peppery Connecti- 
cut, with her good claim and charter, not for this same land, 
but for the southern portion of New York, and the northern 
part of Pennsylvania, and a good bit of Ohio. We drop the 
discussion of that unpleasantness and its final settlement 
to keep to our own thread of the story. 

What wonder that when in the fullness of time the matter 
of settling state boundaries and jurisdiction came up there 
were knotty questions, each claimant with a chartered right 
to the same acres. It is a long story of labyrinthine legali- 
ties that Henry O'Reilly treats in detail in his admirable 
" History of Rochester," under the head of the Lands of the 
Si.K Nations. Commissioners were appointed by the State 
of New York, and commissioners were appointed by the 
State of Massachusetts to unravel the tangled skein. They 
met at Hartford, 1786, and by mutual concession the mat- 
ter was amicably settled ; Massachusetts ceding to New 
York all claim to the government, sovereignty, and jurisdic- 
tion of all land west of the present east line of the State of 
New York, while New York ceded to Massachusetts the 
fee of the land subject to the title of the natives "of all that 
part of the State of New York west of a line drawn from a 
point on the north line of Pennsylvania, eighty-two miles 
west from the northeast corner of said State, due north to 
Lake Ontario, excepting a strip of land one mile wide ad- 
joining the eastern bank of Niagara River, the whole length 
of said river." The land thus ceded to Massachusetts con- 
tained about six millions of acres. 

The Iroquois, as has been stated, save a small minority. 



THE TITLE DEED OF THE NEW TENANT. 



43 



had been allies of the British in the Revolution, and had 
forfeited their lands, no provision having been made for 
them by the British in the treaty of peace. The general 
and the state governments, however, had dealt with them 
as repentant children, and the first Constitution of the 
State of New York recognized their right to the soil, de- 
claring the purchase of lands from them unlawful, unless 
such purchase was made under the authority and with the 
consent of the legislature. The State claimed, moreover, 
the exclusive right to buy the Indian title to the land not 
ceded to MassacJnisctts, and that MassacJiusetts alone, or her 
representatives, could purchase the land so ceded. The no- 
torious scheme of the lessees, in this connection, will in- 
terest those who would make an exhaustive study of the 
subject. 

Massachusetts, financially embarrassed, was ready and 
eager to sell her New York lands, and Oliver Phelps and 
Nathaniel Gorham, as representatives of an association, 
stood ready to buy, offering for the same, in the paper of 
the State of Massachusetts, three hundred thousand pounds, 
to be paid in three annual payments. 

In April, 1788, the Legislature of Massachusetts ceded 
to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham all of said land 
for that price, on condition that they would extinguish the 
Indian title. The ^ , 

State of Massachu- ^M^tiMh?^ 

setts appointed the 
Rev. Samuel Kirk- 
land, for many years 
the faithful and be- 
loved missionary to 
the Iroquois, to pro- 
tect them from any 
wrong, and to hear 
and present their 
side of the mat- 
ter. 

In July, 1788, at a treaty at Buffalo Creek, the final nego- 




Indian Treaty. 



44 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

tiations for the great purchase by Oliver Phelps, on behalf 
of himself, Nathaniel Gorham, and their associates, were 
concluded. Our Senecas, who had sullenly hung back from 
the sale, refusing to part with their lands, were represented 
by many of their chiefs. They had come to the treaty, 
however, determined to stand firm against selling a foot of 
ground west of the Genesee River ; but they yielded at last, 
and the Mill Lot, twelve miles by twenty-four on the west 
side, was added to the lands they sold east of the river. 
Said Mill Lot included the One Hundred Acre Tract, the 
nucleus of a city incorporated forty-eight years after, in 
1834, with 12,289 inhabitants and " thirteen hundred houses 
besides publick buildings." 

About two millions six hundred thousand acres in all 
were then and there ceded by the Indians to Phelps and 
Gorham, for five thousand dollars, and an annuity of five 
hundred dollars forever to the Senecas, which is still paid 
to the previous tenant of our section of the Old Long 
House, by the State of New York. 

Phelps and Gorham, having extinguished or purchased 
the Indian title to about one third only of the lands of 
Massachusetts in the State of New York, found them- 
selves unable to make the required payments for the bal- 
ance, and so made application to the State of Massachusetts 
for confirmation of the part so purchased and release from 
payment for the remainder, the unfulfilled contract to be 
annulled. By act of the legislature in November, 1788, 
the title of Phelps and Gorham to the land granted to 
them by the Indians was confirmed. Afterwards the un- 
fulfilled part of their contract with the State was cancelled, 
and they required to pay only a just proportion of what 
they had agreed to pay for the whole, something over one 
third. Among the unforeseen events bringing about this 
result was the advance of 'the currency in which they had 
agreed to make their payments, it having risen from about 
fifty per cent, to near par. Massachusetts gladly acceded 
to the petition. Its financial troubles were lightening, and 
the enterprise of Phelps and Gorham had greatly enhanced 




I'en-nsyf-^'^'^i-^'^'- 



THE TITLE DEED OF THE NEW TENANT. 45 

the unsold lands. There was far more money in taking 
back what Phelps and Gorham could not pay for, than in 
trying to hold them to the original contract. 

The lands in our section of Western New York belong to 
the tract of which Phelps and Gorham were the purchasers. 
The title deeds are derived through their undisputed title. 
One of the first conveyances made was that to Ebenezer 
Allan of one hundred acres for a mill and a mill yard. 

Townships were at once laid out and the sales began, 
Oliver Phelps opening the first land-office in America in 
Canandaigua, 1789. What better inducement could be held 
up to the would be pioneer than a sound title deed .'' 

We read in that interesting little book, " The Rochester 
Directory for the village of Rochester, 1827," how in the 
spring of 1788, before setting out for the Genesee Country 
where the final treaty was held, " Oliver Phelps, living at 
Granville, Massachusetts, prepared himself with men and 
means to explore the Genesee Country, and with great res- 
olution and intrepidity took leave of his family, his neigh- 
bors, and the minister of the parish who had assembled on 
the occasion, all in tears, and started on his expedition, — 
they bidding him a final adieu, scarcely hoping ever to see 
him return again from an Indian country hardly yet paci- 
fied. . . . The kindness, however, and good faith with which 
Mr. Phelps, like the celebrated William Penn, always con- 
ducted his intercourse with the Indians, did not fail to se- 
cure their confidence and affection ; in token of which they 
adopted both him and his son, Oliver L. Phelps, as hono- 
rary members of their national councils." 

No doubt, many of our land-owners will be glad to read 
the following tribute to the memory of the man whose 
name makes good their right to their possessions, with 
hearty agreement with the writer of the same, — the Roch- 
ester historian of 1827, Jesse Hawley, the man to whom 
we are indebted before all others, perhaps, for the Erie 
Canal. 

" Oliver Phelps may be considered the Cecrops of the 
Genesee Country. Its inhabitants owe a mausoleum to his 



46 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

memory, in gratitude for his having pioneered for them the 
wilderness of this Canaan of the west." 

OHver Phelps was a man of great enterprises, buying 
tracts of wild lands in many localities. He made large 
investments in the Southern States. His wealth was over- 
estimated, and his losses were in proportion to his risks, 
lie became a resident of Canandaigua in 1802, and died 
there in 1809. The inscription upon his tombstone, and 
that of Mary his wife, is singularly appropriate. Above 
his grave we read : — 

"Enterprise, Industry, and Temperance cannot always 
secure success, but the fruits of these virtues will be felt 
by society." 

Of " Mary, wife of Oliver Phelps, and daughter of Zach- 
ariah and Sarah Seymour; died 13th September, 1826, aged 
74 years," it is recorded : — 

" She was alike unaffected in prosperity and adversity." 

Nathaniel Gorham, a Bostonian, never removed to the 
purchase with which his name is identified, and had but lit- 
tle to do with its management. His son, however, lived in 
Canandaigua many years, and died there in 1826. 

" Phelps and Gorham " are two names which have added 
much to the fair fame of the Genesee Country. To them 
we are indebted for a title deed, clean and just. 



ARRIVAL NUMBER ONE. 47 



VIII. 

ARRIVAL NUMBER ONE. 

The first settler upon historic ground is likely to be a 
focal centre of the picture forever after. 

He is an optimist indeed who can contemplate the char- 
acter of Ebenezer Allan, our first settler, first miller, first 
householder, and not wish many wishes. Not the least of 
these would be that Ebenezer Allan's record, instead of 
being perpetuated, should be destroyed for the comfort of 
those who shall come after us. Then the historian of 1984, 
finding the name of Ebenezer Allan in the title deed of the 
old mill yard, might construct out of his sweetly tempered 
fancy a creation fitting the scriptural suggestions of the 
name and the time, and Rochester would have in its future 
art gallery, perhaps, the picture of a saintly Jesuit celebrat- 
ing mass in his portable chapel at the Genesee Ford, or a 
Puritan preacher, a hermit in his cave among the rattle- 
snakes, — and the children of that far off day would look at 
the picture and say, " There is the holy Joshua who opened 
for our forefathers this home in the wilderness." 

Another temptation must be met by the Rochester his- 
torian in dealing with " Indian Allan," — the temptation to 
substitute what Ruskin calls " invented effects of light and 
shade on imaginary scenes, for the providentially ordered 
fact." But Indian Allan is one of those " providentially 
ordered facts," that, like the Cogswell statue in our most 
public place to-day, make light and shade of no conse- 
quence whatever. Ebenezer Allan stands conspicuous on 
the pedestal of our first settler. For many years he was 
lord of the swamp, "monarch of all he surveyed." His in- 



48 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

dividuality was too pronounced, his actions too emphatic, to 
be passed over with the alkisive suggestiveness that would 
leave my reader in doubt whether he was saint or demon, 
sinned against or sinner. We wish, for the fair fame of 
Rochester, that he had been a Champlain, a Standish, a 
Roger Williams, almost anything but the brutal Blue Beard 
he was, but we must tell his story true, and make the best 
of our " providentially ordered fact." 

Let us begin that story by telling the best thing that can 
be said of him. Mary Jemison, the "White Woman," was 
his friend. More than once his life lay in her hands. Her 
house was his city of refuge in many a bitter strait. Her 
allegiance to him was in her love of her race. That alone 
can account for it, for she was not in the remotest way a 
copartner of his crimes. Another thing may be said to 
his credit. It is not recorded that he was ever in his rela- 
tions with her anything but the gentleman he could be and 
was when he had selfish ends to carry. Her simple story 
of Allan begins as follows : — 

" Some time near the close of the Revolutionary War, a 
white man, by the name of Ebenezer Allan, left his people in 
the State of Pennsylvania, on account of some disaffection 
toward his countrymen, and came to the Genesee River 
(near Mt. Morris) to reside with the Indians. He was ap- 
parently without any business that would support him ; but 
he soon became acquainted with my son Thomas, with 
whom he hunted for a long time, and made his home with 
him at my house. Winter came on and he continued his 
stay. He was always honorable, kind, and even generous 
to me ; but the history of his life is a tissue of crimes and 
baseness of the blackest dye. I have often heard him re- 
late his inglorious feats, and confess crimes, the rehearsal 
of which made my blood curdle, as much accustomed as I 
was to hear of bloody and barbarous deeds." 

This Thomas Jemison was a kindred spirit of Allan's, 
a sorry drunkard, and given to brandishing the tomahawk 
over his mother's head in his drunken frenzies. 

Is it not Huxley who tells us that in the discovery of 



ARRIVAL NUMBER ONE. 



49 



truth we must often let the imagination play around the 
phenomena ? That rule must help us in our brief study of 
Ebenezer Allan, for meagre are the facts upon which to 
build a biography. 

The man was a Tory refugee, one of Butler's Rangers, 
whom Sullivan had left stranded in the Genesee Country. 
His distaste for civilized life was plainly the outcome of 
associations with it. Something we may never know had 
embittered and poisoned him. That he was well known in 
Philadelphia must be inferred from the fact that for years 
after he was an Indian trader in the Genesee Country he 
used to visit that city annually and bring back a pack of 
goods, for which he was " trusted." Mary Jemison often 
had charge of his " box of trinkets." A peep into that box 
would doubtless reveal much of the strange man's history, 
for it was a precious box to him, although it may have con- 
tained nothing but the gewgaws with which he won the 
confidence of the Seneca squaws. 

His name, " Indian Allan," has left the impression that 
he was an Indian, But he was neither Indian nor half- 
breed. Tall and straight as an arrow, when as a young 
man he hunted with Thomas Jemison, his light complexion, 
gentlemanly address, and mild and conciliating voice did 
much in securing the loyalty of the Indians to his schemes 
for his own advancement, and usually at their cost. He 
was born to be master, and in his characteristic determina- 
tion to rule supremely, and that over abject slaves, we find 
the key to his exile from civilization, and the degradation of 
his supremacy thereafter. The vague glimpses given us of 
his face reveal an immobile determination that grew fiendish 
when his innate brutality was aroused, or his savage will 
thwarted by a dependent. Then he was the incarnation of 
cruelty, and his savage rage is associated with many spots 
in this locality. There is the grave on Shaeffer's Flats, 
Scottsville, of the boy he sent for a bucket of water, who 
played by the way, and was beaten to death on the spot. 
Our Genesee Falls were seemingly to him what the Divorce 

Court might have proved in a later day. Once when he 
4 



50 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

would go to Canada without the impedimenta of a certain 
wife, two men were hired to take her saihng down the fair 
Genesee in a canoe, it being arranged that they were to let 
her go over the falls that used to be near the present aque- 
duct, they swimming ashore, of course. The superfluous 
Mrs. Allan did not, however, go over the main falls, as it 
was expected she would do. She struck out for the shore, 
and gained it. Our imagination has unbounded opportu- 
nity for full play around the phenomenon of a wife who, 
under such circumstances, flies straight to her husband, 
and wins the journey to Canada after all. 

There is a story about the first mill irons of our first mill 
that we would gladly exchange for a fact proving them to 
be clean of blood. It stands recorded in O'Reilly's History, 
in the synopsis therein given of Allan's life, that while go- 
ing down in a canoe with these mill irons he drowned the 
Dutchman who was with him. Now ]\Ir. Shaeffer, the Scotts- 
ville veteran pioneer, who bought his farm of Allan, contra- 
dicts the report that the Dutchman was murdered by Allan, 
but admits that he and the mill irons went over the Falls, 
and that Dutchman, boat, and mill irons were found below 
the cataract, — giving no explanation as to how Allan was 
preserved to recover his irons and build his famous mill. A 
few more such phenomena will prove the exhaustion of the 
playfulness of our imagination, leaving the portrait of Allan 
too repulsive even for Mary Jemison to make somewhat at- 
tractive. 

He must have had the faculty of inspiring confidence 
and winning friends in a wonderful degree. He was no or- 
dinary man. His autograph shows that he was not wholly 
uneducated, and shrewdness and intelligence were ascribed 
to him by the many pioneers who knew him well. He used 
to travel about the country quite like a gentleman, or, as 
the Senecas called him, " Shin-ne-wa-na," which means the 
same thing. Two of his half-blood daughters were sent to. 
Philadelphia to school, he and his servant accompanying 
them, Sally, the Seneca mother, being permitted to follow 
the party as far as Canandaigua. 



ARRIVAL NUMBER ONE. 5 1 

But that incident anticipates the day of his prosperity, 
some time after he built the mill at the Genesee Falls. 
When Oliver Phelps, in 1788, soon after tlje famous pur- 
chase of Phelps and Gorham of the Genesee lands, with the 
extension for a mill yard on the west side of the river, gave 
Ebenezer Allan one hundred acres of that extension as a 
bonus for building mills to grind corn and saw boards for 
the settlers, he could not have known the real character of 
the man, although it must be admitted that his record at 
Gardeau Flats was by no means unknown. Perhaps the fact 
that Allan had been instrumental in preventing a foray of 
the Indians, and had been hunted and persecuted by the 
British and their allies, commended the man to his consid- 
eration, and Allan's smooth tongue and polite address did 
the rest. Moreover, Allan had the money to build the mill. 
Where else could be found so adequate a miller for a mill 
in a swamp, a mill as yet without customers, and which at 
its raising, although mustering every white man in the re- 
gion and the country round about, had but fourteen where- 
withal to make merry with the canoe load of rum which 
arrived at the mouth of the river just in season ? 

That was ninety-five years ago. Turn into Aqueduct 
Street, find the building on the east side next south of 
E. R, Andrew's printing establishment. That covers the 
ground where our first raising took place, 1788-9. That 
first raising would hardly adorn our history if fully de- 
scribed. Rum had much to do with all our early settle- 
ments. The Englishman's keg of rum, more than almost 
anything else, gave the white man foothold on the south- 
ern shore of Lake Ontario. 

While the hilarious company of Indians and white men 
are raising the timbers for Allan's mill, let us make a sur- 
vey of its environment. 

Upon all the lake shore between Oswego and Fort Ni- 
agara there was but a single cabin. That was Walker's, 
" the Ranger," at the mouth of the river. Walker was one 
of Butler's Rangers, and when they fled before Sullivan to 
Canada he concluded to stay behind and hunt, fish, and, 



52 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

traffic with the bateaux men. Two women shared his 
lonehness, or, rather, welcomed him back from his frequent 
visits to Fort Niagara, when it was his custom to spread 
the alarm, " The Indians are coming ! " to scare off the squat- 
ters. There was a trading-post at the head of Irondequoit 
Bay, and a few Indian traders and squatters up the river on 
the flats. Shaeffcr had just bought Allan's farm at Scotts- 
ville. The Wadsworths had not yet turned pioneers. 
There was no bridge across the outlet of Cayuga Lake. 
The first road in all the country had not been made. Mr. 
Phelps had fixed upon the foot of Canandaigua Lake as the 
head centre of the purchase, but no one wintered there in 
1788-9. At Buffalo Creek there was an Indian interpreter 
and two or three traders. Even Bath, for many years out- 
stripping Rochester in progress, was an unbroken wilder- 
ness until 1792. There was a British garrison at Fort Ni- 
agara whose deserters were frequently befriended by the 
Indians as they skulked through this region. Geneva had, 
however, made quite a start in the world, as its township 
was divided into lots, and it was doing a big business as an 
Indian trading post. New England knew almost nothing 
about Western New York, although it had shuddered at the 
accounts of the massacres of Cherry Valley and Wyoming. 
Its first missionary society for propagating the Gospel 
among the Indians on the frontier was not organized until 
1796. The Rev. Samuel Kirkland, it is true, began his 
blessed mission to the Oneidas as early as 1766, and had 
visited the Genesee Country, writing letters to good Chris- 
tians in New and Old England of its pagan darkness ; but 
missionary letters then, as now, had narrow circulation. 
Stephen Lusk, of Pittsford, who among our pioneers was 
what a marked epoch is in a chronological table, came into 
"the new region " in 1789, and as he procured his wheat 
from Ebenezer Allan on what was afterwards the Shaeffer 
farm, we conclude his log-cabin was not built at the time of 
the " raising," and that he was not among the invited to 
the " Bee." The borders of the great Indian Territory of 
the unknown West were hardly beyond the roar of our falls. 



ARRIVAL NUMBER ONE. 53 

Britain's navy was barely represented on Lake Ontario, and 
three or four schooners were sufficient for its commerce. 
Geneva and "the Friends' Settlement," on Seneca Lake, 
were in fact the only clearings in the Genesee wilderness 
where a good start had been made promising the immediate 
and permanent occupancy of the white man, excepting Can- 
andaigua, and some might well doubt if Mr. Phelps would 
locate there at once, if at all. 

1788. That was the year before George Washington was 
made first President of what seemed to be thirteen dis- 
united States. The predictions of our transatlantic foes 
were not unfounded. Alexander Hamilton, the youngest 
man in the national convention, was the leader of the Fed- 
eralists. The new Constitution had not been ratified. " It 
has an awful squinting," Patrick Henry was saying; "it 
squints towards monarchy. Your president may easily be- 
come a king." The city of Washington was unfounded, 
and New York, that was feverishly striving to be the seat 
of the national government, had a population of about thirty 
thousand. George the Third was temporarily insane, and 
the London " Times " in its very infancy. In the year 
1789, the year the first mill at the Genesee ford ground out 
its first grist, and that seldom exceeded ten bushels a day, 
and grinding days were scarce at that, Neander was born in 
Gottingen ; and to-day Neander's library is one of the valu- 
able acquisitions of the Theological Seminary in the city 
of which that old mill was the prophecy. 

The raising lasted two days, and wound up with a dance. 
That the mill did not do a prosperous business is hardly to 
be wondered at. There were objectionable features in the 
domestic life of the miller, — in the moral atmosphere of 
the place. He was said to be a dealer in stolen cattle be- 
sides, and in league with the British and their Indian allies. 
His presence at the mill was never to be relied upon. His 
absence could be depended upon almost to a certainty. It 
was a hard mill to reach from the eastern side of the river. 
The settlers from Brighton and Pittsford, or further south, 
took the Indian trail running along the southeastern slope 



54 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of the pinnacle, and struck the river near Mt. Hope, pos- 
sibly following what we call Indian Trail Avenue. That 
detour was to avoid the marshes. The rest of the journey 
was made in canoes unless the river was low enough for 
fording. Fording near the mill was a dangerous experi- 
ment. As a rule every man was his own miller, and must 
camp in the deserted or preoccupied cabin at least one 
night, and exercise his mechanical ingenuity to make the 
old machinery grind his grist at all. Other mills soon 
sprang up in various localities, and Allan's was almost de- 
serted. It had several discouraged owners before it be- 
came the property of Colonel Williamson, the agent of the 
Pultney estate, who spent five hundred dollars on it, and 
then seemed to forget it entirely, for it was suffered to sink 
again into decay. In January, 1802, it was valued, with one 
hundred acres of land, at $1,040, and in 18 10 there was but 
a half acre of cleared ground at the Falls, and that was 
around Allan's old mill. 

There is a story of the old millstones and irons which 
must not be forgotten. 

The stones were taken from a neighboring quarry, we are 
told, although some of our old settlers affirm that they were 
brought from Massachusetts on wagons, and were the gift 
of Phelps and Gorham or the State of Massachusetts. The 
irons were bought in Cohocton by Allan, and brought to 
the mill by Indians on pack-horses. Some say Allan drove 
the horses alone, walking the whole way. In 1806 these 
stones and mill irons were carried to a small mill on the 
Irondequoit by Oliver Culver, Miles Northrup, and Benja- 
min Blossom, and set to work again. For twenty-five years 
they did good service, and then again the sound of their 
grinding was low, and they were allowed to lie neglected 
and forgotten on the banks of Irondequoit Creek. Happily 
for the preservation of these, our most venerable municipal 
antiquities, a few years ago Jarvis M. Hatch, president of 
"The Young Pioneers," instituted a search for Allan's old 
millstones. One was found hidden in the weeds, the other 
serving as a horse-block for a Brighton farmer, one side 



ARRIVAL NUMBER ONE. 55 

having been sledged off in accordance with his views of 
what a horse-block should be. "The Young Pioneers" 
soon placed a handsomely dressed stone before the farm 
house, and bore off their treasures, and laid them where 
they may be seen unto this day, in the City Hall court- 
yard, the foundations of the high lamp posts. 

Enos Stone's reminiscence of the old mill dates back to 
about 1790. " I carried some grain to Allan's mill, to get 
it ground for my brother Orange, and I had to remain over 
night. Allan was there on a spree or carousal. To make 
a feast he had sent Indians into the woods to shoot hogs 
that had gone wild, and he furnished the whiskey. There 
were many Indians collected there. It was a high time, 
and the chief of the entertainment was enjoying it in great 
glee." 

For twenty years after the building of Allan's mill there 
was little or no effort towards further settlement in its local- 
ity. Fevers and agues, rattlesnakes, swamp land, and mos- 
quitoes gave " the falls " an unattractive notoriety. Allan 
had not added to the charms of the place. When in 1809 
the petition for a bridge across the Genesee at the Falls 
was presented to the legislature, great was the derision 
thereat. Was there not a bridge at Avon forsooth } Who 
ever heard of taxing a people for so unjust a measure .-' 
"Must musk-rats and squirrels have a bridge across the 
Genesee "i " " It is a God forsaken place, visited only by 
straggling trappers and British deserters, through which 
neither man nor beast could gallop without fear of starva- 
tion or fever and ague." 

The bill passed, notwithstanding, and we are told that the 
political party seeking its defeat paid dearly for its opposi- 
tion to "unjust taxation." 

The settlement had made an early start but very slow 
progress when contrasted with the other settlements of the 
Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The bridge at the Falls in 
18 1 2 changed matters. The dangerous ford, the steering 
for the old sycamore -tree, and the not infrequent strug- 
gles with the deadly current were things of the past, even 



56 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

if we have to admit, that for several years as many set- 
tlers cleared out disgusted as resolved to stay. Land was 
cheap, terms easy, and not a few had spent their all in emi- 
grating to the Falls, where sickness as well as poverty des- 
tined them to grow up with the country. 

Ebenezer Allan died in Upper Canada about 1814, leaving 
many descendants. In 1821 a man calling himself Seneca 
Allan appeared in Rochesterville, claiming to be a descend- 
ant of the first miller, and more than that, the rightful owner 
of certain lands within the city limits. Those who remem- 
ber him as a frequenter of the " Republican" office, often 
waiting articles for the same, describe him as " very much 
of a gentleman." He retained the best legal talent of the 
village, and but for the fact that the plaintiff was cut off 
suddenly by an attack of inflammatory rheumatism, the 
aforesaid legal talent might have been handsomely re- 
warded. 

Ebenezer Allan has left his name upon the lovely creek 
that, rising in Wyoming County, passes through Warsaw, 
Middlebury, Covington, Bethany, a corner of Stafford, Le 
Roy, and Wheatland, and finds the Genesee at Scottsville. 
The people of Le Roy, we are told, have considered giving 
it another name, that of Oatka, "coming out from between 
high banks." " Ginisaga" is its old Indian name, and really 
there seems no good reason for calling it Allan's Creek a 
day longer. 



SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 57 



IX. 

SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 

Before concentrating our interest upon the One Hun- 
dred Acre Tract and its next door neighbors, generously 
included in the village of Rochester, let us take a brief 
survey of some of the earliest pioneers upon the Phelps 
and Gorham Purchase, the first among those to whom the 
new title deed was conveyed. 

Jemima Wilkinson, "The Universal Friend," is an inter- 
esting study of religious fanaticism. We find her with a 
band of devoted disciples among the earliest pioneers of 
the Genesee Country, one of her colony having given her 
one thousand acres of land at Jerusalem, near Crooked 
Lake, where her singular community had decided to locate 
that they might live in separation from a naughty world. 
The credulity of her disciples was as marvelous as their 
subjection to her whims. The order to fast forty days on 
bread and water, or to wear a cow-bell on the neck, or so- 
journ in Nova Scotia for three years, if given by her was 
submissively complied with, for was she not the Second 
Coming of Christ, fulfilling the prophecy in Rev. xi. 3-13, 
and were not James Parker and Sarah Richards her " two 
olive-trees," and " two candlesticks " standing " before the 
God of the earth " 'i She had every qualification for a suc- 
cessful mission of the kind — illiteracy not excepted — and 
a readiness to perform miracles, see visions, and dream 
dreams. She prohibited her followers from marrying, and 
husband and wife joining her ranks must live separate if 
they would have her favor. There was a certain com- 
munism of property, she expecting to inherit that of her 



58 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

subjects as a matter of course. She could not disappoint 
them, it appears, in any way, not even if she declared 
she could walk upon Seneca Lake and would, her followers 
carpeting the ground between her carriage and the bank 
with their white handkerchiefs when she drove up to make 
good the assertion. They had built a platform over the 
water, as if they would see her launch out upon a consid- 
erable depth to begin with. But she is equal to the occa- 
sion, and so is their faith. She demands to know the pre- 
cise condition of their confidence, and having been assured 
that it is as a rock, she serenely tells them that the miracle 
is wrought if their faith is sufficient, and that it would be 
a questioning of the same for her to display the power they 
already believed in. 

How such entertainment must have diversified the usual 
monotony of the life of a pioneer I We find the community 
sowing their first wheat in 1788. The first grist-mill in 
Western New York was at " the Friends' " settlement. Its 
site was two miles and a half from the present town of 
Penn Yan. The "Universal Friend" had many distin- 
guished visitors, and so helped to advertise the new lands. 
The Duke of Liancourt was less favorably impressed by 
her than many. "Her hypocrisy," he wrote, "may be 
traced in all her discourses, actions, and conduct, and even 
in the very manner in which she manages her counte- 
nance." Once when the Senecas encamped on her land, 
"Good Peter" preached before her in Indian tongue, and 
when she asked to have his words interpreted, " If she is 
Christ," said Good Peter, "she knows what I said." 

This much for a glimpse of an extinct fanatical sect that 
did much for the opening of the Phelps and Gorham Pur- 
chase, but rebelled against militia muster to their cost. 

Another more successful fanaticism had its origin among 
the early settlers. The Gold Bible of the Mormons was 
said to have been found in its soil, for Joseph Smith, the 
prophet, was the son of a pioneer of 18 19, who settled in 
the town of Manchester near Palmyra. Rochester nar- 
rowly escaped the notoriety of publishing the first Mormon 



SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 59 

Bible, for it was the prophet himself who in the year 1829 
addressed Thurlow Weed in the " Telegraph " office, saying 
he wanted a book printed, — that he had been directed in a 
vision to a place in the woods near Palmyra, where he had 
found a golden Bible, etc. The little he read to Mr. Weed, 
from a tablet in his hat, sent him elsewhere with his golden 
Bible, but Rochester may boast of having declined the pub- 
lication of the same, although Mormonism was first intro- 
duced to the public in an editorial of Henry O'Reilly's, 
which appeared in the " Republican," in 1830, Mr. O'Reilly 
speaking of it as an "absurdity;" and yet Joseph Smith 
and his recruits were highly pleased at seeing themselves 
in print, and reminded Mr. O'Reilly many times afterwards 
of his having introduced them to the newspaper world. 

Many of the townships and villages of what is now Mon- 
roe County were far in advance of Rochester as pioneer 
settlements. 

It was in 1790 that the Twenty Thousand Acre Tract, 
now partly included in Rochester, was bought by Messrs. 
Ely, Pomeroy, Hunt, and Breck, and in 1796-7, when the 
ruins of Allan's mill stood alone in the wilderness at the 
Falls, four families settled at Hanford's Landing, arrivinsr 
in midwinter, making cabins of their covered sleighs until 
the new log-huts were ready for occupancy. They repaired 
the old mill sufficiently to make it saw boards for them, 
but it was not until some fourteen years after that the 
first store in all these parts was opened, the store of Han- 
ford at Hanford's Landing. The venerable building that 
used to stand on the east side of the boulevard was re- 
moved this spring (1884), and unfortunately before a photo- 
graph was taken, although it was on our list of illustrations. 
But there was neither store, nor anything else like civiliza- 
tion, when Thomas and Simon King, Elijah Kent, and Eli 
Granger kindled a fire on the snowy ground and gathered 
their little company around it to cook and eat their first 
meal in the Genesee Country. They were the first settlers 
upon the west side of the river below the mouth of Black 
Creek, excepting Indian Allan in his capricious visits to his 



SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 6 1 

stone that run, rested upon it, so that in raising and lowering 
the stone to grind coarse or fine, the whole wheel, which 
was a monster, with the stone upon it, had to be raised with 
the bottom timbers. This was done with a monstrous lever 
which run the whole length of the mill, tapering to near 
the end, which was managed by a leather strap put twice 
around and fastened to the timbers at one end, while at the 
other end hung a huge stone. The bolt was carried from 
a screw made on the shaft under the stone, into which a 
wooden cogged wheel was geared, in manner similar to an 
old pair of swifts. The ground meal as it ran from the 
stone fell upon a horizontal strap about six inches wide, 
and ran over a wheel at the far end of the bolt. This strap 
ran in a box on the upper side, and as it went over the 
wheel, the meal was emptied into a spout and carried into 
the bolt. In grinding corn, this spout was removed and 
the meal fell into a box made for the purpose. The bolt, 
however, had to go constantly, as the science of mill mak- 
ing here had not reached that very important improvement 
of throwing out of gear such machinery as is not wanted 
running. But that was to me a charming mill ! It rum- 
bled and rattled like thunder, and afforded much amuse- 
ment to the boys, who, like myself, formerly assisted in 
the ponderous operation of ' hoisting the gate.' The gate 
hoisted with a lever similar to the one that raised the stone ; 
a bag of heavy weights was hung to it, and then it was a 
half hour's job for a man to hoist it alone. When once 
hoisted it was not shut again until night, the stones being 
let together to stop the mill between grists." 

Harford's old mill was upon the site of the Phoenix Mills 
of to-day, and was among the antiquities of the region 
when, in i8i6, Elisha B. Strong and Elisha Beach bought 
one thousand acres, said acres including on the map of 
Phelps and Gorham what the pen of the map-maker, at 
least, had decided should be the city of Athens some day. 
The two Elishas undoubtedly accepted the surveyor's man- 
tle of prophecy, but for some unexplained reason, probably 
because like Carthase of old its site was favorable to the 



62 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

natural development of a city, and that it was a quarry for 
its neighbors as well, they gave us Cartilage instead of 
Athens, and at once proceeded to make good the ruins 
promised in the classical name ; for we find them the very 
next year, before a single good road had been made to their 
ambitious clearing, building a bridge, the like of which was 
only to be seen in Switzerland, — the bridge at Schaffhau- 
sen, to be sure, which was only twelve feet longer span 
than this daring leap across the Genesee, where the banks 
were upwards of 200 feet high. It was a single arch, 
crossing the river between the Lower Falls and what we 
still call the Landing ; and when it was built, the most 
lofty single arch in Europe was 116 feet less in length 
than this in a vi^ilderness, and Europe had not an arch so 
high by 96 feet. The length of that wonderful bridge was 
718 feet ; its width 30 feet. It was the missing link be- 
tween the Ridge Road and the great thoroughfare that luas 
to be over another bridge across Irondequoit Bay, and along 
the northern townships of the purchase. What was the 
low wooden bridge at Rochcsterville in comparison with this 
magnificent structure.'' The joint stock company which 
had given this visible sign of their faith in the future of 
Carthage proceeded to other enterprises. A store-house 
and wharf was built on the river, and a road down to the 
same ; and William Acer built his substantial tavern, draw- 
ing the oak timber for its beams from his farm in Pittsford, 
and said tavern can be seen among our ruins of Carthage 
unto this day. William Acer was father of John Acer, 
mine host of the old Phoenix of Pittsford in pioneer days, 
and was one of the early settlers who first bought lands 
of the Indians, and whose title was afterwards confirmed 
by Phelps and Gorham. The descendants of John Acer, 
among whom are Mrs. George W. Fisher of our city, are 
still in possession of the broad farm lands William Acer 
settled upon in 1791, said property having been held by the 
family ninety-three years. 

The Carthage bridge was a short-lived wonder, but hap- 
pily for the builders it did not tumble into wreck until it 



I 



\ 



SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 63 

had lasted longer than the time they had guarantied it 
should stand, or lose payment for its cost. It stood a lit- 
tle over one year, and went down without loss of life, the 
first of a series of Carthaginian failures that left such scanty 
provision of relics behind, that the antiquarian of modern 
Carthage, like him of the ancient city, is found regretting 
the want of evidence that would assist in reconstructing the 
venerable metropolis. But as ancient Carthage had its 
monument in the Cathedral of Pisa, so the Carthage of 
the Genesee gave from its quarry the foundations for our 
first aqueduct and many more enduring enterprises. The 
defect of the bridge was in its famous arch, which gave way 
when there was no weight upon it. It lacked " bracing," 
and was'symbolical of many a grand land speculation of the 
time. 

So much for the environment of Rochester, at the time 
when Colonel Nathaniel Rochester with his family of five 
boys and five girls arrived at their new home in the village 
in 18 18, and took possession of what was a very delightful 
residence in those days, even for a gentleman's family, — 
a substantial, roomy house on Exchange Street that had 
been occupied by Dr. Levi Ward, a suburban residence, with 
a fine view of the river and its woody banks and of the isl- 
and, where the kine fed in the meadow. Very picturesque 
was the scenery on the opposite bank, and they were not 
so very far from the spring of water that soon gave its 
name to the street where it was located. The country 
road between the house and the river led directly to the 
Corners, and there was prospect of having an Episcopal 
church in the neighborhood. 

There is nothing about the " Break o' Day House " sug- 
gesting the faintest kinship to the old home of Colonel 
Rochester, — the hospitable mansion with its well kept 
gardens and trim flower-beds and pear orchard, — and it 
seems an unkind freak of fortune that the house which 
radiated so many blessings should in its old age have fallen 
from its high estate.^ 

1 Colonel Rochester not many years after built the house on the corner of 



64 ROCHESTER: A Sl^ORY HISTORICAL. 

In September, 1800, for we must go still further back if 
we would see this new home in its relations, four Mary- 
land gentlemen, well mounted and attended, set out from 
Hagerstown to see the Genesee Country, of which they were 
hearing so much. They were gentlemen of means, long- 
established position, and eminently associated with public 
affairs. Their names were Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, 
Colonel William Fitzhugh, Major Charles Carroll, and 
Colonel Hilton, fast friends and old neighbors. One of 
them at least, the Christian father of a large family of boys, 
was considering if it would not be far better for those boys 
if they were removed from the influences of slavery. His 
final decision is inferred from the fact that he with the rest 
of his party made large purchases of land in Livingston 
County, near Dansville. 

In 1802, Colonel Rochester, Colonel Fitzhugh, and Ma- 
jor Carroll bought the " One Hundred Acre " or Allan Mill 

;^, Tract for 
seventeen 
and a half 
dollars an 
acre ; . the 
site origi- 
nally given 
to Ebene- 











y^ zer Allan as a bonus for building his 
.T^ mill at the Falls. 

In May, 18 10, Colonel Rochester 
closed up his business in Maryland, 
having decided to move his family to 
Dansville. Colonel Fitzhugh and Major Carroll would fol- 
low as soon as they could dispose of their plantations or ar- 
range to leave them. The removal of three such men from 
the county seat of Washington County, Maryland, was con- 
sidered a public loss, and has proved a fast relationship 

Spring and N. Washington streets, where he lived until his death in 1S31. 
There have been but few changes in this old house, which is rightfully called 
the old Colonel Rochester Homestead. 



i 



SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 65 

between Hagerstovvn and Rochester, which one party at 
least has never forgotten. Colonel Rochester was the first 
to take his departure. When that well-remembered caval- 
cade, — two family carriages, the colonel and his five boys 
on horseback, and one of his daughters besides, two or 
three great wagons with four heavy horses each, ten slaves, 
these the members of two entire families including an old 
grandmother or " mammy," all under the charge of expe- 
rienced teamsters, — when this cavalcade passed slowly 
down the main street of Hagerstown bound for the Genesee 
Country, the thoroughfare was lined with townspeople, and 
not a few watched it as they would a funeral train. There 
was much tearful hand-shaking ; none were too lowly to 
bid "the Col'nl" good-by. One young man of good family 
begged the privilege of driving Mrs. Rochester's carriage 
himself, and was accorded what he esteemed a privilege, and 
which added greatly to the comfort and safety of the family 
under his special care. The names of those boys setting 
off so elate were William, John, Thomas, Nathaniel, and 
Henry : the eldest aged twenty-one, the youngest a little 
fellow of four years old, who rode a pet pony and hardly 
left his saddle in the day-time, during the long journey of 
nearly a fortnight, save for a nap in the carriage, or when 
the party was resting at a wayside inn. He remembers dis- 
tinctly the good road they passed over most of the way, how 
they crossed the mountains and struck the west branch of 
the Susquehanna, then onward through the forest to Lycom- 
ing Creek, and the excitement their arrival made at the little 
villages along the route ; for very few, if any, of the emi- 
grants to the Genesee Country had gone through Pennsyl- 
vania with such an outfit. Moreover Colonel Rochester's 
previous visits were well remembered, and the event of the 
removal of his family from an old homestead in the garden 
of Maryland to the Phelps and Gorham Purchase excited 
much comment, and not a few of our best settlers are 
among those who in time followed that cavalcade "up to 
York State." Some of Colonel Rochester's old Hagers- 
tovvn neighbors soon took up their line of march as his 
5 



66 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

followers, among whom are the Stulls of Rush, and other 
German families, — our townsman Joseph A. Stull being a 
direct descendant of a Hagcrstovvn pioneer. 

" Little Henry's" reminiscences of that eventful journey 
are full of interest ; impressions of the beautiful mountain 
scenery, the trout-brooks, the occasional block-houses, the 
hospitality of the residents along the road, the startling ac- 
cident when one of the teamsters was killed by falling un- 
der his wagon while descending a steep hill, the arrival at 
Painted Post and Bath, and finally the entrance into Dans- 
ville, quite a stirring place even in 1810, but made more so 
by the addition of a large land-owner, who bought the bor- 
ders of the mill creek on both sides, and soon had them 
buzzing with mills of almost every kind ; for in the five 
years that Colonel Rochester lived in Dansville, he built 
and carried on a flour-mill, a large paper-mill, a saw-mill, 
and attended to his farm and wild lands besides. When 
we remember that he was then past the prime of life, and 
not as vigorous as some at sixty years, the man's character 
is more fully appreciated. Is it to be wondered at that Mrs. 
Rochester found ample opportunity for the development of 
the contentment which characterized her whole life in the 
new country, and although depressed at times with longing 
for the old associations in Maryland, made her new home 
so charming that her family had few longings for Hagers- 
town .? In 1815, we find Colonel Rochester on his great 
farm in Bloomfield, a farm still bearing the name of " the 
Rochester Farm." He had sold his interests in Dans- 
ville, and would sooner have moved to the village of 
Rochester, where he was obliged to spend much of his 
time looking after his real estate, but the trouble with 
Great Britain, the fear of an invasion, made it an unde- 
sirable home. He lived on the Bloomfield farm for three 
years, and in April, 18 18, moved his family to the village, 
which counted among its scanty honors the name of RocJi- 
cstcr above all others. Our pioneers are fond of telling 
how the news of his decision to reside here was received. 
It was the uppermost topic at the " Corners," men shaking 



SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 6/ 

hands over it as they did at a later day when hearing of a 
great victory, and just here one of Edwin Scrantom's stories 
must not be forgotten. 

" The Colonel lived in a house with a large garden, on 
the corner of Exchange and Spring streets. He was an 
early riser and used to work in his garden before breakfast. 
I remember standing timidly on the outside of his fence 
one morning watching him. After a while he looked up 
and said pleasantly, ' Come in and I will show you my gar- 
den.' " (How much is revealed in this picture of the sim- 
ple kindness of the man, for Edwin Scrantom was then a 
"printer's devil," and undoubtedly a fair specimen of his 
inky craft.) " He spoke very kindly to me, asked my 
father's name, and looking at my green, lank figure, added 
smiling, ' You are neither man nor boy. I call you a 
hobble-te-hoy.' He went on with his work, giving me a 
pleasant lecture on industry and early rising which I never 
forgot . . . One day when he was setting out some pear- 
trees, and I stopped to watch him as I fell into a fashion 
of doing after that morning whenever I had time, he said, 
' I don't know as I shall eat any fruit from the trees I am 
planting, but as I eat from trees somebody planted for me, 
I must set out trees for those who will come after me.' He 
always gave me something to remember and think about." 
Another boy of that day tells how his mother bade him 
always to take off his hat when he saw Colonel Rochester, 
for it was not every boy who knew a man worthy of the 
honor. Among the many stories that might be told illus- 
trating Colonel Rochester's strict integrity is the one re- 
lating to the stormy political times of 1826, when De Witt 
Clinton and Henry Huntington were the Clintonian nomi- 
nees for governor and lieutenant-governor, and William B. 
Rochester and Nathaniel Pitcher were the " Bucktail " 
or Democratic nominees. There was much betting, and 
Henry E. Rochester, not of age, having just received one 
thousand dollars for a lot on Spring Street which his father 
had given him, took up several bets, amounting to one 
thousand dollars, upon Pitcher's election, — his inbred deli- 



68 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

cacy prohibiting his betting on his brother's chance. He 
won the bet and his money, and went home jubilant enough 
with two thousand dollars in his pocket. " I am sure your 
father will disapprove," said his mother, when he natu- 
rally expected the congratulations of his family ; and sure 
enough, the good Colonel was soon asking, from his quiet 
little room adjoining the parlor, where he usually sat apart 
in the evening over his papers and books, the cause of 
Henry's hilarity. The case was plainly stated. " This 
money must be refunded," said the Colonel at once. " Not 
one penny of it can you keep ; " dwelling in his clear, 
kindly way upon the evils of betting, and the influence his 
sons should be careful to exert in the community. What 
made the misdemeanor most unpardonable in his eyes was 
the fact that his son's intimate knowledge of the inner 
workings of political influences, which made him sure at 
the outset that Pitcher would be elected, had not prevented 
his betting. His words carried conviction, and the next 
day Henry was seen looking up the losers on the bet, and 
returning the money. The majority, if not all of them, 
were comparatively poor. One man named Kennedy, a 
book-keeper in Beach & Kempshall's mill, who had lost his 
bet of two hundred and fifty dollars, was stoutly determined 
not to accept the money. It was a fair bet and it should 
stand ; but a letter from Colonel Rochester himself inclos- 
ing the check and begging him to remember his duty to 
the community brought about the desired result. . . . Some 
three weeks after Colonel Rochester gave his son Henry 
E. the deed of another lot on Spring Street, worth two 
thousand dollars, and which was sold afterwards for six 
thousand, 

A wiser leader, a safer counselor, was never given to 
the builders of a city. A true gentleman, never forgetful 
of the rights and the welfare of the laboring classes ; a true 
Southerner but a truer patriot ; a consistent Christian whose 
faith leavened the homeliest acts of his life, — what city in 
all the land wears so fair a name as ours } Not only is the 
name of Nathaniel Rochester our inheritance, but his im- 



SOME OF OUR FIRST FAMILIES. 69 

press upon our formative period is still seen in our city's in- 
dividuality, in a certain conservatism, a sturdy adherence to 
what has been proved good, no matter what the fashion of 
the times ; in a sure progress rather than headlong rush, an 
unpretentious hospitality rather than dazzling display. Our 
first miller may be forgiven us when we find " the old mill 
yard " transformed under the proprietorship of a gentleman 
who was far less the land speculator than a public bene- 
factor. 



j^".' 
^ 



t. ^ ^x: 



^ ««ii.HjmiT-iir» u Mr •?• 







/ 

// 



The Carthage Wooden Bridge, 1818. 



yo ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



X. 

A DISMAL SWAMP. 

The bridge across the Genesee at Falls Town was built in 
1812, a detachment of troops to the Niagara frontier cross- 
ing on its sleepers. Colonel Rochester did not become a 
resident of the place for some six years after, and James 
Wadsworth, of Geneseo, who was watching his survey of 
the One Hundred Acre Tract, and his sale of lots, wrote to 
Colonel Troup : " I wish that tract of one hundred acres 
could be bought of the Maryland gentlemen. The bridge 
and mill seat render it very valuable indeed." But Colonel 
Rochester was by no means inclined to change his plans. 
He had made Enos Stone his local agent, and a letter 
written by him to our first pioneer settler on the east side 
of the river will be read with interest. Enos Stone's orig- 
inal farm covered the most thickly settled portions of the 
east side of to-day, and he was the first purchaser of a lot 
in "the old mill tract." 

^^ --^^ Dansville, 14th August, 18 II. 

Dear^ Sir, — Inclosed I send you a plat of the village of 
Rochester^at the Falls of Genesee River. I have sent on 
advertisements to the printers at Canandaigua and Geneva, 
mentioning that I have laid out a village, and that you will 
shew the lots and make known the terms on which the lots 
are to be sold. 

The terms are for lots No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17, 18, 30, fifty 
dollars each; for lots No. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 20, 21, 
22, 23, 24, 25, thirty dollars. No. i, two hundred dollars, 
the rest that are numbered are sold. Persons purchasing 



A DISMAL SWAMP. 7 1 

must build a dwelling-house or store-house, not less than 
20 X 16, bythe first of October, 1812, or the lots will revert 
to the proprietors, and the advance of five dollars be for- 
feited. Five dollars are to be advanced on each quarter 
acre lot, and twenty dollars on lot No. i, the residue to be 
paid in two annual payments with interest thereon. If any 
person wants a lot above the head of the race on the river, 
tell them that I will be down in October to lay out lots 
along Mill Street, up the river, and these lots can be had 
for building warehouses on the river at fifty dollars for a 
quarter acre lot. Bridge Street, Buffalo Street, Mill Street, 
and Carroll Street are six rods wide, the other streets are 
four rods, and the alleys twelve feet. You will observe 
that lots No. 26, 27, are to be but three rods on Bridge 
Street, but extend back more than ten rods, owing to the 
angle in the street. When I go down in October, I shall 
lay out the streets, alleys, and lots agreeable to the inclosed 
plat. Nathaniel Rochester. 

And here is the list of lot buyers in the village of Roch- 
ester, or Northampton, Genesee County, if we are to be 
exact. 

The sales following Enos Stone's purchase of lot 36 at 
$$0 are as follows, beginning December 29, 181 1 : — 

Henry Skinner, lot No. i $200 

Hamlet Scrantom, lot 26 50 

Isaac W. Stone, lots 23, 34 100 

Abraham Starks, lot 20 50 

DaA^jd C. Knapp, lots 21, 22 200 

Amasa Marshall, lot 25 50 

Apolenus Jerry, lot 32 125 

Israel Scrantom, lots 18, 19 100 

Luscum Knapp, lot 45 60 

Hezekiah Noble, lot 5 60 

Joseph Hughes, lots 15, 62 80 

Ebenezer Kelly, lot 16 60 

Ira West, lot 3 3° 

Ira West, lots 50, I r5 260 



72 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Elisha Ely, lots 39, 40, 41, 133 360 

Porter P. Peck, lot 154 100 

Josiah Bissell, Jr., lots 7, 13, 31 260 

Stephen Lusk, lot 6 50 

William Robb, lots 61, 62, 63, 116, 117 . . . . 800 

Michael Cully, lot 79 100 

Cook and Brown, lot 83 100 

Harvey Montgomery, lot 88 250 

Roswell Hart, lots 8, 56, 57 400 

Charles D. Farman, lot 129 300 

George G. Sill, lot 154 90 

James Stoddart, lot 130 100 

Fabricus Reynolds, lot 131 200 

Only one of these lots reverted, and nearly all were paid 
for by the original purchasers. ^ Few villages were offering 
lots so low, but it was Colonel Rochester's idea that good 
settlers must be land-owners, and that the real value of his 
property was in the character of the men who first settled 
upon it. At the time of his death in 1831, there were but 
four places in all New England with a greater population 
than Rochester, Western New York. The immigration that 
followed his purchase of the mill tract not only exceeded 
former years as to numbers, but also as to the respectability 
of the immigrants. Our pioneers as a rule were not the 
" flood wood " of the East, but men of good family, and ex- 
ceptional enterprise. They were substantial merchants and 
mechanics from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and 
New England, who had higher aims than their own personal 
success. 

Hamlet Scrantom's name must head the " Arrivals of 
Families " on the Old Mill Lot Register. Enos Stone's 
has the honor for the east side, for in 1810 he and his wife 
and "the hired girl" raised the first white man's cabin on 
the bank about where the new Osburn House now stands. 
The framework of that historical edifice may still be seen 
in the rear of No. 28 Elm Street. The story of Hamlet 
Scrantom's arrival is familiar to many of us, so graphically 

1 See Turner's Phelps and Gorhani's Purchase, p. 587. 



A DISMAL SWAMP. 73 

has it often been told by his son, the late Edwin Scrantom, 
to whom we are indebted for many a unique picture of 
pioneer days. 

Hamlet Scrantom was living in Durham, Connecticut, 
when in 1805 he first succumbed to the western fever, and 
had a brief convalescence in Lewis County, in this State. 
But a relapse resulted in his visit to his old neighbors, the 
Wadsworths in Geneseo. There he met with Henry Skin- 
ner, who had bought lot No. i (now Powers Corner), at Falls 
Town. He would build a house on it for his friend Scran- 
tom if he would only settle there, a tempting offer accepted 
at once ; and we see Hamlet Scrantom setting forth from 
Turin, Lewis County, one April day in 1812, ox-goad in 
hand, his wife and six children comfortably packed with the 
household goods, the dinner chest, and the "bunks," in the 
big canvas topped wagon that his neighbors undoubtedly 
watched until out of sight, with predictions it was as well he 
did not hear. His oxen were strong and so was his wagon, 
a good beginning ; and there was an extra horse, the pet of 
the children, for a hard pull, or for a change to the ox-driver 
and the older children, who must walk some of the way. 
Hamlet Scrantom was a little late in getting off. As a 
rule, the emigrants chose sleighing for many reasons. 
Better cross a frozen stream on the ice, than try fording a 
swollen one when the spring freshets were coming down. 
The Cayuga bridge they find cannot be crossed, because 
of some accident it has sustained from the ice; but a big 
scow takes them all aboard, a drove of oxen as well, and 
their shipwreck had been inevitable but that their bedding 
was sufficient to stop up the hole made by the heavy tramp- 
ing of the cattle. Eight days brought them to Canan- 
daigua, where they hear nothing cheering from the Gene- 
see Country : far from it. The bridge is not yet finished 
there, and fording the Genesee in the spring is to take 
one's life in his hand. Had they not heard of the man 
swept over the Falls, not a week before, — he and all his 
household goods .'' He had been buried in a coffin made 
of one of his boxes, close to the river below the Cataract, 



74 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the first white man's grave in that locality. Those Falls 
would prove no good to anybody with their eternal roaring, 
and had they heard of the rattlesnakes, the fevers, and the 
mosquitoes ? 

Hamlet Scrantom did not turn back, however, nor is it on 
record that his wife and the six children lifted up their 
voices and wept because he did not. The ninth day 
brought them to Orange Stone's, by "the Rock and Tree." 
Yes, the bridge was building. It would be done in the 
summer. They had better not try fording the river any 
lower down than Castle Town. I£nos Stone had a boat at 
his saw-mill, but crossing there was risky unless the river 
was low. So they followed the trail back of the pinnacle 
and struck the river just above the Rapids. One Gid Allen 
was to ferry them over. A young fellow named Zachariah 
Lewis pushed the boat out into the swollen stream. 

They slept at Castle's tavern that night. There were 
other arrivals before morning, when Hamlet Scrantom, all 
unmindful, I fear, that it was May Day, woke and called his 
big boys early, for they must yoke their oxen, and, leaving 
mother and the little ones behind, go down to the Falls and 
see what the new home looked like. 

Was not that the very first May party along the banks of 
the Genesee .-' We do not hear that they looked for trail- 
ing arbutus, but they had a sharp flurry of snow. 

And now we see the white horns of those patient oxen 
plunging through the wild grape-vines and tangled forest 
growth, that made " getting down " to what is now Buffalo 
Street a hard matter. The log-house they were looking 
for, and which they expected to find on the very lot where 
Powers Block now stands, was not so conspicuous as they 
expected. I doubt if any of the thousands, who, in the 
long, never-ending procession following that ox-cart, have 
brought up at our Four Corners, straining their vision for 
a first glimpse of the magnificence towering thereon, have 
ever anticipated more than did that shivering party who 
for a while looked all in vain. Their Powers Block was 
not to be found. Oh yes, there in the thicket, verily, a 






^!& 









^ 




A DISMAL SWA3IP. 75 

pile of logs ! How glad we all are that Mrs. Scrantom 
had decided to rest one day at Castle Town. 

Mr. Edwin Scrantom shall tell the rest of the story in 
his own way : — 

" A few hands were at work building the bridge. They 
said that the men who were to build our house had been 
taken down with fever and ague, and had gone back to Big 
Tree (Geneseo). Going up a long ladder at the west end 
of the bridge we crossed on the string pieces of the two 
piers to the east side of the river, and found the tavern of 
Isaac W. Stone, a small wooden building on our present 
South St. Paul Street, near Main, the most commodious 
and roomy part of which was the bar-room. A little fur- 
ther south, and near where the east end of the Erie Canal 
aqueduct now reaches the bank, we found Enos Stone's 
house and family. He was building his saw-mill on the 
river near where Harvey Ely's mill was built afterwards. 
He said my father might move his family into a shanty he 
had lately moved out of. It was near his own, and what 
was more, father was to help in running the saw-mill." 

The next day, in the melting snow, we see the family 
moving into their new home, — a house with neither cellar 
nor chamber, an earth fire-place, and a smoky chimney! 
" Those sixty days," writes Edwin Scrantom, then a little 
boy, " were the longest and the dreariest wanderers ever 
saw in this world. Not an ounce of butter, tea, coffee, or 
sugar in the whole time." But the house over the river 
was " getting on." Hamlet Scrantom was turning out the 
boards at Enos Stone's saw-mill, and when the river fell, 
they were taken over the ford near our present jail, — by 
the old watchword no doubt, " Steer for the sycamore-tree ! " 

The Scrantom family then, as now, were decidedly in- 
clined to making the most of "a high day." Having cele- 
brated May I St in a memorable manner, July 4, 18 12, finds 
them moving into the first habitation at the Four Cor- 
ners. ... "In the day-time we could hear and see the deer 
in the swamps. They went to what we called 'the deer 
lick ' for water, — a springy place near the corner of what 



•j6 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

is now Buffalo Street and Plymouth Avenue. At night we 
heard many wilderness sounds above the roaring of the Falls, 
— the mournful hooting of the owls, the sharp barking of 
the foxes, and sometimes the howling of the wolves. . . . 
We used to catch rabbits in our box traps, near where the 
Arcade now stands, and such bushels of butternuts as we 
gathered from the trees all along under the ledge of rocks 
that ran from the river near the old Allan mill, back of 
what is now the Wilder Block and Smith's Block and the 
Court House Square." Mr. Scrantom has told many stories 
of the rattlesnakes infesting that ledge. The Falls Town 
boy who did not have a string of rattles was like a Roches- 
ter boy of to-day without a collection of business cards. 

Here is Edwin Scrantom's description of his first sight 
of Allan's old mill that May Day, 1812 : — 

" Having calculated on what was needed for finishing 
our log-house we made for the river. A thick jungle of 
bushes, butternut-trees, and v/ild grape-vines lay all along 
the south side of Buffalo Street, and on the top of the 
ledge of rocks in the rear of the present buildings. We 
found an Indian path which led up to the top of this ledge, 
and climbing up we saw the ruins of the old Allan mill. 
The old wheels and the millstones were half buried in the 
earth. The hut where the bridge hands had slept the year 
before was empty. The door was opened, and when we 
peeped in there was an ominous rattling in the straw of an 
old bunk that demanded our presence elsewhere. . . . Enos 
Stone's clearing was then not so far east as Chestnut 
Street, nor as far south as Court. . . . The forest was un- 
broken between him and his brother-in-law, Moses Hall, 
save by foot-path, and Moses Hall's clearing was where 

Hiram Sibley's residence stands to-day Looking down 

the river from ' the Stone's ' there was no break nor open- 
ing. On the slope near Andrews Street of to-day there 
were large clumps of towering, wide-spreading cedars, the 
'lovers retreat ' of a later era." 

A letter written by Hamlet Scrantom to his father may 
well be inserted here. 



A DISMAL SWAMP. yy 

July 28, 1S12. 

Hon. Father, — From the Falls cf the Genesee I now 
address you. I have purchased a lot in the village of 
Rochester, which is in a state of nature at present, but the 
prospect is very promising for business, in case the diffi- 
culties are settled between the British and American na- 
tions. A bridge is almost completed here which will cost 
$8,000, and roads centre here from all directions. The 
village is laid out on the west side of the river, and my lot 
is second from the river near the end of the bridge. Just 
above the bridge are falls of twelve feet, affording the best 
water-power for mills and machinery. The river is naviga- 
ble fifty miles above this place for boats, and from Lake 
Ontario, which is seven miles below, vessels can come up to 
within four miles of us. The river falls nearly three hun- 
dred feet in four miles. In sight of the bridge and about 
seventy rods below, the river is lost to the eye, where it falls 
ninety-six feet perpendicularly, and thence runs between 
high banks of some two hundred feet nearly to the lake. 
At the great falls below the village is a mill building, or 
rebuilding, calculated for seven runs of stones, only three 
of which will be put in motion this season. The country is 
very pleasant and fertile, very quick in the production of all 
kinds of cultivated fruits, and timbered with oak, chestnut, 
hickory, black walnut, and white wood, some of enormous 
size. I saw one white wood log twelve feet long, which 
produced one thousand feet of clapboards. To persons 
coming here let them inquire at Canandaigua for the new 
bridge at Genesee Falls. Farms hereabout are from five 
to fifteen dollars an acre. Village lots fifty dollars for a 
quarter acre. The declaration of war made a great uproar 
for a time and many families moved away from the west of 
us, but some are returning. About three thousand of the 
regular troops are stationed at Niagara, the lake shores are 
well guarded, and we do not apprehend that the British 
with all their Indians are able to subjugate the inhabitants 
of this western country. I arrived here with my family on 
the 2d of May, and with all the gloom of war, think I have 



78 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

made a good choice for the future. I have moved across 
the river and am soon to put me up a house on my lot ; 
have tended saw-mill thirty-three days, and cut thirty-eight 
thousand feet of boards. The town where I reside is 
Northampton,^ village of Rochester, County of Genesee ; 
but letters at present had better be directed, town of Boyle, 
County of Ontario, Falls of Genesee River. A post-office 
will soon be established here, of which I will inform you. , . . 
I remain your affectionate son, 

Hamlet Scrantom. 

Letters like this did much for the settlement of the 
Genesee Country. All Hamlet Scrantom's old friends, 
relatives, and neighbors were soon made acquainted with 
the contents of that letter without doubt, and discussed 
the matter of "going west," if they did not at once follow 
his example. Times were hard, taxation oppressive. The 
Revolutionary soldiers had been discharged without pay. 
The patriots who had supported the war had been " made 
good " in government paper, and what was it worth .-' The 
army had left the work -shops and farms to the brave 
women, who had saved nothing for the support of disabled 
heroes. We had no commerce, and the fisheries had been 
abandoned. One thing we had, that every poor patriot 
winced under, a national debt of $100,000,000, and a gov- 
ernment powerless to collect duties on imports, or to com- 
pel the States to raise their part of the burden. The laws 
for debtors were severe, and who was not in debt or likely 
to be } The lands in the Genesee Country were very cheap, 
and the agents offered the most favorable terms. " Men 
are earning a dollar a day out there for their labor," was the 
report, "and buying land for twenty-five cents an acre." 
Men who could not pay twenty-five cents an acre were 
working it out, — men of good New England and Maryland 
stock at that. Wadsworth's handbills were posted up at 
the village stores, — " Wild Lands for Farms ! " and James 
Wadsworth in person was holding public meetings in the 

1 Northampton reached from the Genesee River to Lake Erie. 



A DISMAL SWAMP. 79 

cast, describing the Genesee Country, and urging emigra- 
tion to its fertile " flats." Tlie Pultney estate was also 
early in the field, and all that these agents said so elo- 
quently and persuasively was indorsed by the soldiers who 
had marched through the beautiful valley with Sullivan, 
the drovers of the great herds of cattle to Fort Niagara, the 
surveyors of the different agencies, and the tourists — an 
increasing cavalcade — to the Falls of Niagara. "The sons 
of settlers and trappers out there are making fifty dollars a 
season for musk-rat and coon furs! " some one would say, 
arousing the fathers and mothers of big families to face 
the fever and ague without further tarrying. " Wadsworth 
offers a premium of six bushels of wheat, a barrel of whis- 
key, and a barrel of pork for the first dwelling raised in a 
township. More than that, he '11 go to the raising bee ! " 
said another, and there was a pulling up of old stakes at 
once, and the yoking of the oxen into the big sleighs, whose 
boxes must serve for a roof until the log-cabin should be 
done. Good sleighing, or let us say " /(?/'<5'«/" sleighing, 
was the best help for the emigrant to the west. Then the 
streams were likely to be frozen over, the roads were fair 
as they could be, and one had a chance to get his crops into 
the new land in season. Game was plenty. There was no 
fear of famine where hunters were said to kill sixty deer 
in a season. " A hundred and fifty trout could be taken 
from Allan's Creek without changing ground." Bear steak 
was not bad eating, and bear skins made good breeches and 
bed covers. Raccoons were plenty enough, and some of 
the settlers ate fried raccoon three times a day. That was 
better than letting the thieves get the corn, and raccoon 
skins brought a good price. There was a bounty, besides, 
on wolves and wild cats. The lonely inmates of the cabins 
in the vicinity of Cayuga Lake saw the result of the con- 
sideration of all these minor items in the increasing num- 
ber of families "bound for the Genesee Country," who 
gee-hawed their oxen over the long bridge in the winter 
and spring of 1 812. It was a hard journey at the best. 
Streams and sloughs must not infrequently be causewayed, 



80 ROCHESTER : A STORY IIISTORTCAL. 

and logs or fallen trees cut and removed from the track. 
The night camp after the first arrival at the new home was 
often on the sheltered side of a snow bank, mother and 
babies housed under the sleigh -box close to the big fire 
of hemlock boughs. The rifle was ready for any hostile 
intruder. The hospitality extended by forerunners in the 
wilderness was cordial and unbounded. The men turned 
out for " the raising," and to help split the bass-wood logs 
for the cabin floor ; while the women took the babies home 
with them, and kept them until the mother could get things 
"righted up a bit." In case of sickness, the backwoods' 
doctor had his remedies, and what was better for stiff joints 
and bruises than rattlesnake oil, and rattlesnake gall for 
any kind of fever t Rattlesnake gall pills were made up 
with chalk, and possibly — if the fancy were suppressed — 
no worse to take than some of our modern balms with 
sweeter names, and quite as beneficial. To the early 
pioneer death had terrors and inconveniences unknown 
to us, who have never had to give the seasoned timbers 
of our doors for a coffin, nor to hear the squaws wailing 
around our desolate houses in token of sympathy with our 
sorrow. 

The undeveloped salt springs of the Genesee Country 
were among its greatest attractions. How can we realize 
what " the salt difficulty" was to our forefathers '^. If they 
could do without it, their cattle could not, and there was the 
necessity of preserving food for the winter. When Peter 
Schaeffer first came to Scottsville, he paid seven dollars a 
barrel for salt, — six was the usual price. Seven dollars to 
Peter Schaeffer or any backwoodsman was a great deal of 
money, when nothing but potash or black salts was to be 
sold for cash, and that at great labor and disadvantage. 
There was nothing so scarce as money, however, not even 
salt. Peter Price paid ten bushels of corn for shoeing the 
first horse he ever owned in Rush, and horses managed, 
like their owners, to get along largely without shoes. 
Wheat even was not always "good for cash," in fact but 
seldom ; many a farmer had his granary full and was un- 



A DISMAL SWAMP. 8 1 

able to raise money enough for a pound of tea. But if one 
could take time to burn over an acre or two of clearing, and 
leach the ashes, and raise a kettle somewhere for boiling 
down black salts, he could earn a little " store money," for 
potash, before wheat, corn, or anything but furs, was one 
of the resources of this wonderful country, and many a for- 
tune was made from the asheries. 

ABELARD REYNOLDS SELECTS A LOT ON THE ONE HUNDRED 
ACRE TRACT. 

I am permitted to make the following extract from the 
unpublished autobiography of one of our most esteemed 
citizens : — 

"Having decided on locating in Rochester (1812), I 
called on Mr. Stone and told him that was my decision, 
if I could be suited in the selection of a lot. He said I 
should have my choice, and taking the map of ' the village 
of trees,' we crossed the unfinished bridge on loose plank, 
descending the long ladder at the west end. Walking up 
to the Four Corners and looking at the map, I said I would 
take lot No. i (Powers Block). Stone said it was sold to 
Henry Skinner. 'Then I will take No. 22 (Elwood Block).' 
He said that was sold to Mr. Knapp. ... If he failed to 
fulfill his contract, I should have it. He recommended the 
Clinton House lot because it offered a prospect of a hand- 
some lawn opposite, in front of the Allan Mill, now Child's 
Basin. He said he considered that the pleasantest lot in 
the village, but it did not suit me. He then said that the 
two corners on the south side of Buffalo Street were 
unsold. I told him that I wanted a central lot on the 
north side of an east and west street, and that I would 
take lots 23 and 24 ; and as he had said that Knapp would 
probably relinquish his contract, I might be able to add 
that lot to the other two. But lots 23 and 24 were sold : 
the former to Captain Stone, and the latter to himself in 
payment for services rendered. I might have his lot, and 
he thought Captain Stone would sell his. We recrossed 
the bridge and called on Captain Stone. He said he 
6 



82 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

would assign the article for five dollars. I paid him that 
sum and he made the assignment. ... I found the side 
lines of my lot were not at right angles with Buffalo Street, 
which through carelessness I had not observed on the 
map. In the mean time, Knapp had sold the corner lot to 
Scofield, who asked more than I was able to pay. ... I 
pointed out the matter of the side lines to Mr. Stone, who 
thought there was no remedy. ... 1 proposed to Mr. Sco- 
ficld that he should give me twelve feet from his east front, 
and from that point run a right angle line with Buffalo 
Street, which would give him three feet of my rear for one 
of his front. He thought well of the proposition, and 
agreed to make the exchange if Colonel Rochester would 
consent. A man by the name of Marshall had bought lot 
No. 25, and would not consent to the arrangement unless I 
would move my east line twelve feet west, leaving my lots 
the same width as before. I claimed that I had the right 
to add the twelve feet to the width of my lots, but he would 
not yield, and as I lost no land by the operation, I came to 
his terms. Scofield and I then went to Dansville and sub- 
mitted the matter to Colonel Rochester, and he consented 
to the arrangement, and said he would change the side 
lines of all the lots from the corner lot to the river and 
make them at right angles with Buffalo Street. • . . While 
at Rochester, I learned that Oliver Robbins owned one 
hundred acres of land adjoining that of Enos Stone on his 
north line, and that it was good land and worth five dollars 
an acre. I called on Robbins and proposed to exchange 
my fifty acre farm at Washington for his hundred acres of 
wild land near Rochester. . . . We exchanged deeds, and 
he paid me the difference in property, among which was a 
valuable horse that brought us to Rochester in a cutter, 
that is myself and wife, her sister, Huldah Strong, and Wil- 
liam A., together with as many articles of iron ware as 
could be stowed away, perhaps half a ton. . . . For my ap- 
pointment as postmaster of Rochester, I was indebted to 
the influence of Colonel Rochester, through Henry Clay, 
his intimate friend, and the son-in-law of Colonel Thomas 



A DISMAL SWAMP. 83 

Hart, a business partner of Colonel Rochester's. . . . 
Moving my family here in the winter, when everything 
wore an unfavorable aspect, I was surprised that my wife 
manifested no disappointment or depression. There were 
many hardships to be encountered, and it required resolu- 
tion and perseverance to surmount them. In the spring of 
18 1 3, when I was prostrated with ague and fever, and for 
six months unable to attend to my affairs, being delirious a 
part of the time, the whole burden fell upon my wife . . . 
but she triumphed over every difficulty." . . . 



84 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 



XL 

ROCHESTERVILLE. 
1812-1818. 

The names alone of those "first arrivals" at Rochester- 
ville in the dreariest days of " the City of Mud in a Dismal 
Swamp," the years between the building of the bridge and 
Colonel Rochester's arrival with his family as a permanent 
resident, explains the secret of its marvelous growth. Such 
men as Abelard Reynolds, Gideon Cobb, "the Elys," Silas 
O. Smith, Josiah Bissell, Jr., "the Browns," Ira West, Jehiel 
Barnard, Charles Harford, Dr. Elwood, Joseph Stone, and 
a score of others as enterprising, could not focalize upon an 
oasis in Sahara without making it to blossom as a rose; and 
Rochesterville, even under its maledictory cloud of an inva- 
sion from Canada, was blossoming beyond the expectations 
of the most sanguine. The trouble with Great Britain was a 
serious check on the growth of the place. " If there should 
be an invasion of the British from Canada," not only the 
fearful matrons of Rochesterville were saying, " the Gene- 
see River is the door they will come in by, and it 's little 
they will leave behind them but ruin and ashes." The de- 
struction of the bridge would be a great victory for John 
Bull, so the villagers kept watch of the foe, and not a few 
made preparation for instant flight, in case the news should 
come from Charlotte, " The British are coming ! " 

Yeo's invasion, and the stand of the noble Thirty-three, 
throws a brilliant glow upon this otherwise rather dusky 
page of our history. Of the invasion we will treat here- 
after. Let us first see what had been achieved by the little 



ROCHESTERVILLE. 8$ 

settlement between 1812-1818, the most of whose land- 
owners had bought lots on the One Hundred Acre Tract, 
and which numbered in 18 18 some 1,049 souls. 

EUsha Johnson had built the dam crossing the river by 
the present jail, and which still bears his name. He had 
also given us Johnson's Race, on the east side of the river. 
Perhaps in all our history we have nothing of more lasting 
benefit to record, nor anything more characteristic of our 
pioneer days, than the succession of blasts in Johnson's 
Race, which were the 4th of July "music" for 1817. 
Brown's Race had also been completed, and that of Roch- 
ester & Co., the latter between Exchange Street and the 
river. The expense of these improvements, and the engi- 
neering skill required, give us some idea of the type of men 
who had them in hand, — wise prophets of our prosperity. 
Wm. Atkinson's mill had been built on the east side, and 
the memorable "raising" of the Elys' "old red mill " in 
Aqueduct Street had taken place, when all the men and the 
most of the women in the settlement had turned out. The 
four run of stones at " the old red mill," like those at 
Strong, Norton & Beach's, and the others, were grinding 
day and night, for Rochester was making flour for the 
Eastern market as well as her own ; and what with a cotton- 
mill, a paper-mill, and saw-mills, Gideon Cobb's semi-weekly 
ox-team to the landing and back, a bath-house, a weekly 
newspaper, Jacks of all trades within call of the Four Cor- 
ners, every religious denomination pushing its mission in 
the Union Meeting-house, or working for a separate chapel, 
an occasional spelling-school, and a constant arrival of im- 
migrants converting every cabin into a boarding-house, — 
really Rochesterville was not the dullest place to live in 
after all. 

Our pioneer story-tellers give us spicy glimpses of those 
days, when Mrs. Reynolds' kitchen was the pleasantest 
place in the village, and folks went to Barnard's tailor shop 
not only for tailoring, but to mend or to have their shoes 
mended, or to enjoy a singing-school, a prayer meeting, 
an Episcopal service, almost anything enjoyable that the 



86 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

genial Barnard could hold forth ; when the loss of a cow 
was a public calamity, and when for the support of a school 
the eight bachelors of the village agreed each to pay for the 
tuition of a scholar. Silas O. Smith had bought and cleared 
land where the Irving Block now stands, still the property 
of his heirs, and having sowed it to wheat and corn, as he 
used to tell the story, was relieved of the harvesting by the 
squirrels and coons. He had also included in his clearing 
the land afterwards given by Rochester, Carroll, and Fitz- 
hugh to the city for its court house and public buildings. 

Pomeroy & Mastick's law office was seldom free in those 
days from a crowd of half drunken Indians demanding a 
bounty for the wolves' scalps they had brought with them, 
and which they left in a pile outside. A few enterpris- 
ing citizens like John G. Bond had built as far back in 
the woods as Washington Street. Dr. Levi Ward had ar- 
rived, and was contributing to the welfare of the village in 
many ways. There w^as a causeway to Culver's, the Ridge 
Road had been improved, and the mails were fairly regular. 
Carthage still believed that she and not Rochesterville 
would be the city of the Genesee Valley, and Carthage had 
a considerable constituency. S. J. Andrews, a graduate of 
Yale, and Moses Atwater had wrought a transformation on 
the east side, in the vicinity of the Falls. Frankford was 
a rival not to be despised, and Hanford's Landing had 
become the great shipping point for Rochester flour, and 
the rivalry between the east and the west side of the river 
was intense. 

The population of this stirring clearing in the forest was 
mixed rather than rough, — idle drunken Indians, as well as 
a considerable sprinkling of Quakers, contributing to its 
unique variety. The resources of the place for the study 
of life in its manifold phases could hardly be called lim- 
ited when " Hot Bread " and his brother warriors and their 
squaws could be visited in their wigwams near the High 
Falls, if one was disposed to recreate elsewhere than in the 
Friends' meeting-house, or by going on a bear or rattle- 
snake hunt. The Quakers were a strong factor in our 



ROCHESTERVILLE. 8/ 

pioneer days, and a valuable one. There were the Colvins, 
hatters ; the Thorns, and Frinks, and Jacob Barrington, 
butchers ; Marshall & Dean, booksellers ; Laban Bunker, 
cooper ; the Colemans, clothiers ; Braithwaite, baker ; Lar- 
son & Johnson, boat builders ; the Frosts, the Congdons, 
shoemakers ; Bell & Lawton, carpenters, joiners, and cabi- 
net makers ; Philip Lyell, real estate ; Sylvester Cornell,, 
surveyor ; Lindley Murray Moore, teacher ; Jacob and Joel 
Pound, grocers, etc. ; Robert Staples, hides and leather ,: 
Gilbert Everingham, merchant ; Chester Garnsey, mer- 
chant ; Jacob Strawn, mason ; William Rathburn, grocer 
and "dealer in everything for cash and barter." A succes- 
sion of failures from 1830 to 1835 proved disastrous to 
many of these "Friends," and they lost in time their foot- 
hold here as a religious body, but many of our most estima- 
ble citizens to-day are their direct descendants. So wide- 
spread were the reports of the depth and the continuance 
of Rochester mud, one cannot help wondering how those 
good Quaker matrons were ever prevailed upon to settle 
here at all, and that not a few of them withdrew to Henri- 
etta. There is a story told of Daniel Quimby whose regu- 
lar appearance on horseback every Friday, no matter what 
the weather, coming in from "Hen-retty" under his broad- 
brim to attend Quaker meeting, was as reliable as an al- 
manac, and won for him the name of "our man Friday" 
from the Rochester boys. 

That was the day of the town pump and the drying-house 
for lumber, right on the Four Corners, no more in the way 
than the street car turning-table of a later period, — a day 
when the whole town turned out to a funeral, and the prov- 
ident man occasionally " dug his own grave " in the bury- 
ing-ground. A suicide's grave was usually marked by being 
cut in two by the spade ; and what with the fever and ague, 
and the British, and the rattlesnakes, and the mud, we won- 
der that the children who pushed through the brambles on 
a summer's holiday to find these exceptional hillocks, were 
so seldom rewarded for their pains. 

Those were busy times at Stone's and Reynolds' taverns. 



88 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Dr. Ellsworth's hotel helped things greatly, but it was noth- 
ing unusual for new-comers to camp in their wagons for 
lack of other accommodation. When Dr. Jonah Brown ar- 
rived in 1813, he was thankful to creep under Miles North- 
up's canvas-top wagon that stood at the west end of the 
bridge, an Indian or two prowling about begging for whis- 
key. A settler who had bought a lot would drive his big 
wagon on to it, and his family would live in the same until 
the shanty was done, the good mothers of the village all 
calling on their new neighbor in the mean time. But lest I 
have failed to give the mud of the locality its preponderat- 
ing place in this picture, I must tell a story, told of the time 
when Buffalo Street was a kind of viaduct, and a villager 
seeing what he thought a good hat floating off on the mud, 
pushed out a plank for it, to discover a very angry man 
under its crown, a man by no means disposed to be trifled 
with. Could n't a man cross the street, to be sure, without 
being robbed of his hat } If Dr. Ensworth's " transients " 
complained of the state of their boots, he used to call for 
" hoe and broom " as nonchalantly as his successor touches 
the electric bell. Batavia was called " the slush tub." 
Rochester never fell so low as that. 

" I remember my first Sunday in Rochester," said Mrs. 
Carter. "It was in 1814. There was Enos Stone's family, 
Colonel Isaac Watson's, Abelard Reynolds', Hamlet Scran- 
tom's, Israel Scrantom's, Henry Skinner's, and Elisha Ely's. 
There may have been others that I have forgotten. The 
only pleasant room in the place was the cellar-kitchen of 
Mrs. Reynolds' house, and that stood where the Arcade did 
afterwards. ... I went to 'meeting' that Sunday in Bar- 
nard's tailor shop. Silas O. Smith had a few prayer-books 
and read the Episcopal service, and Mrs. Barnard, Delia 
Scrantom, and her father and mother did the singing." 

In the little saddler's shop, where the Arcade now stands, 
was to be found the man that was perhaps as fair a type 
of the Rochesterville pioneer as any in the list of honored 
names. Abelard Reynolds was one of our representative 
settlers, who had forded the Genesee to lay the foundations 



ROCHESTERVILLE. 89 

of a fortune as he laid the foundations of his new house, 
with his own hands, drawing the stone from the river-bed 
himself. His neighbors were quick to discern that the en- 
terprise of the Massachusetts man who had given up emi- 
grating to Ohio when he saw Falls Town, and that when he 
thought it a most forbidding looking place, was a source 
of good luck indeed. Abelard Reynolds must have been a 
very busy man in those years ; for we find him a saddler, 
the first postmaster, the first magistrate, the first west-side 
innkeeper, the first in many a public measure, to say noth- 
ing of military and masonic movements, and his interest in 
the lottery schemes of a day when lottery schemes were a 
legitimate calling. The brother-in-law who assisted in mov- 
ing the family to their "home in the Dismal Swamp," where 
he declared " they must inevitably starve," lost all claim to 
seership, desperate as was the occasional encounters with 
the wolf at the Reynolds' door before peace with Great 
Britain restored the patriot to his family, and removed the 
ominous cloud hanging over Rochesterville. 

With Dr. Jonah Brown for "nurse, cook, and doctor" for 
the sick, before other eminent physicians arrived ; Jacob 
Howe for the baker, the ringing bass voice of Dr. Backus 
in the meeting-house choir, the village the wheat-market 
for not only the valley of the Genesee but all the country 
round about, its saw-mills buzzing through the night, new 
settlers flowing in continuously, why grumble at the damp- 
ness of the thoroughfares, the disagreeable pests of the 
ledges and the forests, or even the " Genesee fever } " 

There was a sturdy aim in the character of the settle- 
ment from the first, a plucky defiance of adverse currents 
(an evolution possibly of its dangerous ford). A consider- 
able representation of men of capital and financial reputa- 
tion among the actual settlers and land-owners conferred 
what is not always found in such enterprises, a certain sta- 
bility and conservatism, — the leadership of men who had 
moneyed interests at stake. Perhaps as great a surprise as 
the little village ever afforded, not excepting the valor of 
"the Thirty-three," our next story in order, was when 



90 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Harvey Montgomery, who for more reasons than one was 
rightfully called " the gentleman of the town," defeated the 
foreclosure of a mortgage by Eastern capitalists with a bid 
of fifty thousand dollars, to be paid at once. " Who dreamed 
that all Rochester could raise fifty thousand dollars at once, 
to say nothing of a single individual ? " 

It was as early as 1814 that Gideon Cobb and Oliver 
Culver thought they had closed a fast bargain with Henry 
Skinner for lot No. i, at the Four Corners. The price asked 
by Mr. Skinner for the lot, including the log-house, was one 
thousand dollars, payable half in whiskey and half in pork. 
Before the papers were drawn, Dr. Ensworth offered cash 
for the property, and, to the disappointment of Cobb and 
Culver, his offer was accepted. Under his ownership, the 
old Eagle, not the palatial brick building preceding Powers 
Block, but something more like a country tavern, was built, 
the log-house serving as the barn. 

In the first " Directory for the Village of Rochester, con- 
taining the Names, Residence, and Occupations of all male 
Inhabitants over fifteen years of age, in said Village, to 
which is added a History of the Village from 18 12 to 1827. 
Published by Elisha Ely. Everard Peck, Printer," we find 
a record of the important events of each year. This ram- 
bling resnmd of our history between the building of the 
bridge and Colonel Rochester's arrival as a permanent resi- 
dent is best closed, perhaps, by the record of the old Direc- 
tory, — in which the women of Rochester are so strangely 
ignored, — for the years 181 7, 18 18. 

18 1 7. — By Act of Legislature passed in April, the village 
was incorporated by the name of Rochesterville, and on the 
ist of May the first village election was held for five trus- 
tees, when Francis Brown, Daniel Mack, William Cobb, 
Everard Peck, and Jehial Barnard, were elected. Francis 
Brown was chosen President of the Board, and Hastings R. 
Bender, Clerk. 

The first house for public worship was built on Carroll 
Street [now occupied by the Presbyterian Society]. 

Elisha Johnson purchased of Enos Stone, from the west 



ROCHESTER VILLE. 9 1 

side of his farm, 80 acres adjoining the river, and surveyed 
the same into a village plat, constructed a dam across the 
river, above the old fording place, and excavated a large 
mill canal from thence to the bridge, 60 or 70 rods in 
length, 60 feet wide, and 4 feet deep ; opening extensive 
water privileges, at an expense of $12,000. Orson Sey- 
mour and others, in the course of the year, became jointly 
interested with Mr. Johnson in his purchase, the back land 
of which was yet a forest. 

The price of wheat during the early part of this year was 
from $1.75 to $2.25 per bushel. The loss sustained by the 
millers and merchants was very considerable. 

William Atkinson built the yellow mill on Johnson's 
mill canal, containing three run of stones. 

(Schuyler Moses, who is still living, was the young car- 
penter who cut the tinlber for the flume of that mill in the 
woods where Livingston Park now is. The letting in of 
the water was a great event in the annals of the village. 
. . . Schuyler Moses has not only lived in Rochester since 
18 [7, but in the same neighborhood, corner of Court and 
Chestnut streets.) 

This year the steamboat Ontario commenced running 
from Sackett's Harbor to Lewiston, touching at the port 
of Genesee. 

1818. — Oilman & Sibley built a paper-mill near Atkin- 
son's flour-mill. 

Strong & Albright built their mill at Carthage, contain- 
ing four run of stones. 

Carthage Bridge was commenced by Strong, Norton 
& Co. 

July 7th Everard Peck & Co. established the second weekly 
newspaper, entitled the " Rochester Telegraph." . . . 

In September the second census of the village was taken, 
population 1,049. 

The exports from the Genesee River down the lake to 
the Canada market, during the season of navigation, were, 
26,000 bbls. flour; 3,653 bbls. pot and pearl ashes; 1,173 
bbls. pork ; 190 bbls. whiskey ; 214,000 double butt-staves, 
together with small quantities of sundry other articles. 



92 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN ROCHESTER. 

There are no less than three claimants for this honor, 
James Stone, Benjamin Evans, and Mortimer F. Reynolds. 
I <^ivc their names in the chronological order of their birth, 
and will leave my reader to decide which one of the three 
was the first white child born in Rochester, Western New 
York. 

Perhaps the first thing to be settled is, what were the 
boundaries of early Rochester '^ The Rochester of to-day 
includes much that was not within the borders of Roches- 
terville, and yet those borders are vague indeed when not 
limited to the One Hundred Acre Tract. It is easier to 
learn who was the first white child born in what is now 
named Rochester, than what territory was within the boun- 
daries of Rochesterville or the village of Rochester prior to 
1 8 14. When Enos Stone, the father of James Stone, the 
first claimant, came into the country and settled on the east 
bank of the river in 18 10, his friends in Lenox, Massachu- 
setts, must have directed his letters to Northfield, town of 
Boyle, Ontario County, until there was a post-office opened 
on the west side, when he must have requested his letters 
to be sent to the village of Rochester, Genesee County, 
adding possibly " Falls of the Genesee." 

Colonel Rochester's purchase in 1802 associated his 
name at once with the settlement. In his letter to Enos 
Stone, August, 181 1, he speaks of the village of Rochester 
at the Falls of the Genesee, sending a plan of lots for the 
same, said lots all within the One Hundred Acre Tract. 
Hamlet Scrantom in 181 2 writes to his father from " the 
village of Rochester." In the first Directory of 1827, we 
find the statement that " the village of Rochester is situated 
on both the eastern and the western banks of the Genesee 
River." It speaks of "the centre of the village east of the 
river," on the farm of Enos Stone, and among other lands 
then " occupied as the village of Rochester," farm lots in 
the "towns of Gates and Brighton." In 18 17, by act of 
Legislature, the village is incorporated by the name of 



ROCHESTERVILLE. 93 

Rochesterville. With this contribution to the elucidation 
of what was included in the early village of Rochester, I 
submit the historical facts concerning the " three first " 
white children born within its boundaries. 

James S. Stone was born May 4, 1810, in the old house, 
"The Rock and Tree," near Clover Street. Mr. Stone is 
still living. When he was two weeks old, his mother rode 
on horseback to her new home on the east bank of the 
Genesee River. 

In 1809 or 1 8 10, one George H. Evans, who had been a 
sailor, but who had the laudable desire, since his marriage, 
to cure himself of a longing for his old life on the sea, reso- 
lutely located himself and his young family where surely 
never a breath of salty air should weaken his resolution, 
nor a glimpse of an old shipmate, for in 18 10 he built his 
cabin a little west and north of where St. Mary's Hospital 
now is, back of Judge Danforth's .place. He always as- 
serted his claim to being the first white settler in the 
locality. He had quite lost his sea-legs when Hamlet 
Scrantom arrived. One of our early poets sang of him : — 

" Hail Evans ! who with axe began 
To ope the forests of this land ! 
Hail ! Rochester's first white man, 
Who led the pioneer's small band." 

This George Evans had a son born to him here in 181 1, 
and so the friends of Benjamin Evans make claim that he 
is the first white child born in Rochester, New York. 

George Evans, the father, wandered down to Lake Onta- 
rio one day, and having seen its restless billows, could no 
longer control a desire to go back to the sea. One more 
voyage he must have, and wife and children could not hold 
him longer. He went to New Bedford and shipped for a 
whahng cruise. Upon landing at Newbern, N. C., on his 
return, he fell overboard and was drowned. His eldest son 
was for many years a partner of our veteran sign painter, 
George Arnold. 

Mortimer F. Reynolds, son of Abelard Reynolds, was 
born December 14, 18 14, on the site of the Arcade Build- 



94 



ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



ing, and upon the One Hundred Acre Tract. There is no 
questioning the claim of his venerated mother, still spared 
(April, 1884), to bless the home that has ever been one 
of the fairest illustrations of our family life, to being the 
mother of the first white child born not only on the One 
Hundred Acre Tract, but its very heart, the nucleus of the 
city that was to be. 

I doubt if I have made any easier the answering of the 
question, " Who was the first white child born in Roches- 
ter } " I am reminded of Tweedledee in " Alice in Won- 
derland." " Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, " if it 
was so it might be, and if it were so it would be, but as it 
is 'nt it aint, and that 's logic." 




ROCHESTER CITY BANK 
Built ill 1837. Torn down in 1S83. 



OUR BRAVE THIRTY-THREE. 95 



XII. 

OUR BRAVE THIRTY-THREE. 

I MUST tell this Story for my boy readers particularly, 
having in mind a patriotic club of young Rochesterians, 
" The Boys of Seventy-Six," the Rev. Wm. Dorville Doty, 
D. D., Rector of Christ Church, chaplain. 

I wish I might help each of you to imagine yourself a 
Rochester boy of the year 18 13. That would be making 
you only seventy years younger than you are to-day, and a 
boy in your earliest teens at that. Please try to think your- 
self standing on the new, hardly finished bridge across the 
Genesee, "at the ford," in the early autumn of 1813. I can 
see you distinctly, in your deer-skin trousers, a made over 
pair of your father's at that; but deer-skin breeches are just 
the thing for boys who make collections of snake rattles, 
trap pigeons, partridges, quails, and rabbits, ford the river 
when the water is not too high, play at milling with the 
wreck of Indian Allan's old mill, and explore the woods and 
swamps with the Seneca boys that camp in the wigwams 
on Corn Hill. I cannot, however, imagine your standing 
long on the bridge, for a big emigrant wagon has just driven 
over from tJic west side, and has stopped, of course, at 
Stone's tavern, one of the three solitary houses on the east 
bank, and off you go to see what the last news is from the 
frontier, possibly calling out as you run, "Are the Britishers 
coming.^" You join the company in Stone's bar-room, 
where there is a squad of soldiers most likely, on their way 
to Fort Niagara, and drovers who are taking cattle to the 
fort, and the hungry, tired family as well, just alighted from 
the big wagon, and who have left their log-hut in the clear- 



96 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

ing to return to the East until the difficulty with Great 
Britain is settled. They are positive that Rochester will 
soon be burned to the ground and the bridge destroyed. 
Such prophecies are nothing new to the Rochester boy, but 
as soon as the fugitives are quietly eating their corn bread 
and cold pork from their own basket, there is a hurrying of 
bare feet across the new bridge again, to tell at home the 
last news from the border. That bridge was a very differ- 
ent structure from the one of to-day, — a wooden bridge 
with a railing on either side, where one could stand and 
watch the swift current and hear the roar of the Falls that, 
until the babel of civilization began, could be heard at all 
times for some distance from the river. Now having seen 
the Rochester boy of 18 13, let us try getting a glimpse of 
the village he lived in. 

Stand on the bridge in imagination again, and bring the 
old picture before you. 

There is the Genesee, with great trees and thick under- 
brush crowding close to its banks. The woods begin not 
far from what is now Powers Block, and the chances are 
you can see deer at "the Lick," the place where they came 
to drink from a marshy spring on the western outskirts of 
the clearing.^ There is a high ledge of rocks running along 
back of the south side of the road, and wild grapes, butter- 
nuts, and snakes, are the charms of that ledge to the Roch- 
ester boy. The ruin of Allan's old mill is up there hidden 
in the bushes. The boys have rare sport with its broken 
machinery, and with catching crabs on Crab Island, that 
strip of land the high water sweeps over in the spring and 
fall, but leaves high and dry for the boys' enjoyment in the 
summer. Crab Island is the east side of Front Street to- 
day. If you would see the Falls that used to be just above 
where the aqueduct now stands, you must shut your eyes, 

1 The Lick covered much of that part of the city where the Briggs Block, 
corner of Plymouth Avenue and Main Street, stands to-day. It was hard get- 
ting a foundation for that building even so late as some thirty years ago. The 
old settlers tell a story of a cow that was mired in " the Lick," and quite be- 
yond reach. She sank gradually from sight and at last disappeared, although 
the villagers did all in their power to rescue her. 



OUR BRAVE THIRTY-THREE. 97 

for searching the river with open eyes to-day will not help 
you. They are about fifteen feet high ; and see, there is no 
dam in the river above, and the Jail island is a sycamore 
grove, and the river bank higher up, where the Erie depot 
was afterwards built, is " a good place for bears," and the 
wolves come down there and howl, the settlers say, by way 
of a concert. ... In that log-house where Powers Block 
is to be, a pioneer is living whose children and grandchil- 
dren will have very different homes in every way from his ; 
and in that little frame-house, right where the Arcade is to 
be, lives Abelard Reynolds and the mother of a little boy 
Willie (yes, the very man whose marble bust fills one of the 
niches high up in the south end of the Arcade, the impress 
of whose crutch may be seen on its every floor). He is 
capering about briskly enough you see, in this summer of 
18 1 3, for it was several years after, when playing with 
"Ham" Scrantom in one of the rough places near the ledge 
of rocks, he met with the accident the medical skill of that 
day could not relieve, and which made him a cripple for 
life. 

His father is lying very ill with chills and fever, and I 
fear me, if you stand much longer gazing over this swampy 
clearing watching the big emigrant wagons coming across 
it, going eastward with few exceptions, you too will have a 
touch of the Genesee fever, and little to say in praise of 
your new home at the Falls. "Going eastivardf" you are 
asking from the reality of 1884, "going eastward.? you 
mean westward of course ? " 

Now boys belonging to historical clubs blunder some- 
times like the rest of us. This was in the fall of 181 3 you 
remember, and so I do not need to tell you why the United 
States and Great Britain were having an " unpleasantness," 
and what had happened at Sackett's Harbor in May, and 
how the June before Lawrence had cried out, " Don't give 
up the ship," and how at that very moment, possibly, the 
brave Perry was writing to General Harrison, " We have 
met the enemy, and they are ours." 

There had been sharp fighting along the Niagara, and it 
7 



98 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

seemed likely that the trouble had only begun. The mouth 
of the Genesee was almost defenseless. The ISritish were 
evidently considering an attack at that point. The settlers 
in the interior were terrified at the thought of what might 
befall them in case the Indian allies were turned loose upon 
the country. In June, 1813, Sir James Yeo, the com- 
mander of the British fleet, had anchored off the mouth of 
the Genesee River, and a squad of plunderers had made 
the few men of the place prisoners, while they carried off 
what provisions they needed, salt, whiskey, etc., paying for 
the same, however, which gave rise of course to suspicions 
that it was a pre-arranged plan for a profitable business 
transaction on both sides. The news of their landing, how- 
ever, spread like wild-fire, and every man who could raise 
a musket or a weapon of defense was marching down to 
Charlotte before morning, arriving there barely in time to 
see the insolent invader putting out with their whiskey, 
salt, and provisions. Of course our men fired after them, 
but no one was hurt ; and by the last of the next Septem- 
ber the British fleet was seen lying becalmed off the mouth 
of the Genesee again, in striking contrast with the excite- 
ment the first glimpse of its sails had aroused, men wildly 
flying, like Paul Revere, to spread the news of an invasion. 
The panic was intense ; and in our admiration of the back- 
woods farmers who dashed away on their best horses, or 
waded through the mud on foot to pull trigger on the red- 
coats, let us not forget the brave women who stayed be- 
hind with their little children, the thick woods separating 
them from neighbors. 

Charlotte was wide awake that September day, 18 13. 
There lay the British ships, and there was the handful of 
men to repel their broadside. All at once Commodore 
Chauncey's fleet, our navy, was seen coming round Bluff 
Point. Then Charlotte breathed freer, and could cheer 
lustily. When within a mile from the shore and opposite 
the becalmed foe, our guns opened fire, and the smoke, sin- 
gularly and exasperatingly enough, proved a screen for the 
British, shutting them completely from sight. They re- 



OUR BRAVE THIRTY-THREE. 99 

turned our fire, however, and both fleets went sailing down 
the lake exchanging shots ; but the British made best time, 
and were soon beyond the reach of Chauncey's guns, 
although much disabled, and an officer and ten men were 
either killed or wounded. Our navy suffered slight injury, 
and Cooper's Naval History winds up the story: "Sir 
James Yeo ran into Amherst Bay, where the American 
fleet was unable to follow him on account of the shoals." 

You see Sir James Yeo was getting to be the great terror 
of the Genesee Country, and the women and the children at 
least had had enough of being frightened by rumors of his 
approach, and so the emigrant wagons across the bridge at 
Rochester in the fall of 181 3 came mostly from the west. 
Great was the distress among many of those fugitives flee- 
ing in terror, — " mothers separated from their children, 
and children lost from their families." The State of New 
York gave fifty thousand dollars "for the relief of the 
indigent sufferers in the counties of Genesee and Niagara 
in consequence of the invasion of the western frontier of 
the State." 

I must tell you here that there was no Monroe County 
before 1821. Ontario County reached from a mile east of 
Geneva to the Niagara River until 1802, and then a Gen- 
esee County was taken off from it west of the Genesee 
River. So you see that in 181 3 Rochesterville was in two 
counties. It was Ontario County on the east side, and 
Genesee County on the west side of the river, and this 
appropriation of money for the sufferers in Genesee County 
was chiefly for settlers west of Batavia.^ Only yesterday I 
heard an old lady talking about those troublesome times, a 
lovely old lady, who is now within a few months of her one 
hundredth birthday. She lived in the village of Rochester 
in 18 1 3, and this has been her home ever since. Her hus- 

1 Amusing stories are told of the debtor's races across the bridge in those 
pioneer times when the law for imprisonment for debt was in force, and the 
debtor could only be arrested by the officer of the county in which he was 
found. " Many a time," says F. X. Beckwith, " have I seen a luckless debtor, 
coatless and hatless, flying at 2.40 speed for the centre of that bridge Once 
over the middle line, he was safe from the sheriff behind him." 



lOO ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

band's name was Abelard Reynolds, the father of the little 
boy before mentioned, and they lived in one of the few 
houses on the west side of the river, just where the Arcade 
now is, and Mr. Reynolds was lying very ill with ague and 
fever that summer, and when she heard the stories of the 
coming of the British, she would have him placed upon a 
cot bed so that he could be carried to a place of safety. 
Some kept oxen and big carts in the woods ready to be 
driven off at the first alarm, and the boys were sent to feed 
the oxen and to watch them, and you can imagine how a 
sudden rustling in the thicket made those boys start up 
more than once in terror, and possibly beat a retreat from a 
visionary Red Skin, stealthily creeping upon the settlement 
with bloody hatchet. 

More than once there was a hurried rush to those waiting 
ox-carts in the middle of the night and a driving off over 
the bridge, and some had dug deep caves where they could 
hide, and one man, Mr. Scrantom, bought a new home "way 
out in the woods," this side of Mt. Hope, on the east side of 
the river. 

But at last, just at sundown, one May day, 1814, a man 
came flying up from Charlotte on horseback, that is, fly- 
ing as fast as a horse could fly through deepest mud, with 
the news that the British fleet was actually to be seen 
coming up the lake from Oswego, — a fleet of thirteen 
vessels — five large and eight smaller ones, — and every 
man must turn out in defense of his country, or all would 
soon be at the mercy of the Indians. There were just 
thirty-three men in all Rochester that were fit for duty, 
and Abelard Reynolds, having recovered from his fever, 
was one of them. Happily they had an eighteen-pounder 
cannon at Charlotte. It had been drawn there from 
Canandaigua by seventeen yoke of oxen only a few weeks 
before, and planted on the height near where the Stutson 
House now stands. 

There was a smaller gun at Deep Hollow, — the ravine 
crossing Lake Avenue near School House No. 7, where a 
breastwork had been built across the road and named Fort 



OUR BRAVE THIRTY-THREE. lOI 

Binder. If the British drove our brave men back from 
Charlotte, a last stand would be made by the little four- 
pounder. The planks on the river bridge had all been loos- 
ened, and could be easily taken up by the retreating settlers, 
who, once on the east side, and the Genesee between them 
and the invader, would be out of danger. They would burn 
the bridge if necessary. Isaac W. Stone, who kept the 
east side tavern, had been made Colonel of the Rochester 
army, and Francis Brown and Elisha Ely were the captains. 
Each man in the village had a musket, and there was 
plenty of powder and shot. So long had they been in 
getting ready for a good fight, we are half-tempted to be- 
lieve they were not altogether sorry when the opportunity 
came for them to do something besides talk, and that the 
march down to the landing that night a little after mid- 
night, through the rain and mud, was not wholly regretted, 
save by the women and children left behind, and who, we 
must admit, had the heavier demand upon their heroism. 
Two men only did not march of "our brave thirty-three." 
One was the left-handed fiddler of the settlement ; and an- 
other, whose character has been drawn with a suggestive 
indistinctness that leads us to conclude the women were his 
protectors, and that he must have been an addition to some 
mother's burden, but possibly we are mistaken. Only two 
women stayed on the west side of the river that night, Mrs. 
Abelard Reynolds and her good neighbor Mrs. Covert. 
These two, with the little boy Willie, held the fort alone 
until morning. 

Our troops reached Charlotte just after daylight. Squads 
of armed men were coming in from all the neighboring 
towns. General Porter had not arrived, but they knew he 
would not fail to come. There was a thick fog over the 
lake. The men on the rampart were impatient to know 
just what was behind that fog, if anything at all. This 
rampart was built of two tiers of ship timber, the space 
between filled with manure, and commanded the road lead- 
ing up from the wharf. The eighteen-pounder stood aimed 
straight at the fog. The militia were gathering fast, and 



I02 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL, 

there was a deal of excitement and bluster, many of the re- 
cruits disliking the idea of obeying orders. Some had no 
arms, and not a few carried little bundles on their shoulders. 
But the faintest-hearted meant fight and were impatient for 
battle. Our Rochester men said they would go out and 
inspect the fog, or rather what was behind it. So Colonel 
Stone and Captain Brown and Captain Ely took an old boat 
that was in the river, and six seamen with muffled oars, and 
twelve men with muskets to lie down in the bottom of the 
boat, — among whom was Abelard Reynolds and Jehiel 
Barnard the tailor, — and out they pushed, never knowing 
what they might run into, to be sure. When they were 
about a mile out, three shots were fired from shore. Why 
I cannot tell, unless it was to keep their spirits up, nor if 
said shots brought about the sudden uplifting of the fog, 
and there they were in plain sight of the long line of the 
British fleet, and rather closer than was safe and agreeable. 
They headed for shore straightway, a twelve-oared British 
barge giving them chase. The barge stopping suddenly, 
our boat did the same. Why I cannot tell, but we can in- 
dulge surmises. When Colonel Stone moved shoreward 
again, the barge pulled back to the fleet, and all was quiet 
between the two armies until about ten o'clock, and then a 
flag of truce was seen coming ashore. Captain Brown and 
Captain Ely, with ten of the bravest looking men that 
could be found, were sent down to receive it on Light- 
house Point, and tying a white handkerchief to a stick, one 
of them went out on a fallen tree and waved it, while his 
comrades stood with cocked triggers, their orders being not 
to allow the British to land, truce or no truce. All this 
while the would-be-invader had seen an endless procession 
of men marching into the fort on the hill. That was a 
cunning scheme of the officer in command there, for he 
had collected his little company, — as compared to the sol- 
diers and Indians on the fleet, — and by marching them up 
the hill in sight of the enemy, letting them disappear in 
the woods, to suddenly fall into the line again marching 
into the fort, he made Commodore Yeo to believe that we 



OUR BRAVE THIRTY-THREE. 103 

had ten times as many men as we really had, and the Brit- 
ish began to think they had more serious work on their 
hands than they had anticipated. Then they were suspi- 
cious of being made the subject of some "Yankee trick." 
Those men in homespun, ill-fitting clothing, waiting to re- 
ceive them, were officers in the regular army, they sur- 
mised, with uniforms concealed under their baggy trousers 
and slouchy coats. Our receiving a flag of truce under 
arms was thought a part of the trick to deceive them into 
thinking we were ignorant of the rules of war. 

" Do you receive a flag of truce under arms with cocked 
triggers .'* " asked the British officer. 

"Excuse me, excuse me," said Captain Brown. "We 
backwoodsmen are not versed in military tactics. "Ground 
arms ! " he called to his men. 

The message was a demand for the surrender of the 
public property. In that case private property would be 
respected. Oswego had capitulated. Oswego had not 
thought it worth while to risk life and property in defend- 
ing public stores. Back they went to the fleet, and up the 
hill hurried the message-bearers, and in due time another 
flag of truce was seen pushing towards shore, and Captain 
Brown and Captain Ely with their picked men hurrying to 
receive it. 

" If public property will be given up, private property 
will be respected," said the British. 

"Blood knee deep first," said Captain Brown. 

"Your cloth is too good to be spoiled by such a bungling 
tailor," said the Red Coat, taking hold of Captain Brown's 
pantaloons, evidently to find out if they covered another 
pair. 

" Our haste in dressing this morning to meet our dis- 
tinguished visitors prevented our putting on our best," said 
Captain Brown. The Briton was nonplused. It was, he 
feared, a Yankee trick of deeper dye than any they had 
suffered from before. They had best withdraw, and with- 
draw they did. The parley was over, the battle begun. 
Judge John Williams with a dozen riflemen had crossed the 



104 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

river too far up to be seen from the fleet and was in posi- 
tion behind a gravel ridge on the east side. General Porter 
had arrived, and had warned Yeo that another boat coming 
ashore would be taken care of. Commodore Yeo had re- 
sponded that if the public property was not given up, he 
would land his army and four hundred Indians and take it. 

"Land your savages," said General Porter; "they will 
be taken care of." A gun-boat, sloop rigged, of from 90 to 
100 tons burden, had thereupon sailed out from the fleet 
straight for the mouth of the river, and had fired a six- 
pound shot. Our eighteen-pounder had answered briskly. 
A scheme to capture the gun-boat failed. The firing was 
kept up on both sides. The store-house was struck by a 
British cannon-ball, and not a few of the land spectators 
picked up the balls when the skirmish was over as relics 
of the attack. In fact Yeo's cannon-balls were used many 
years after, it is said, in breaking stone for our public 
works. Nobody was killed, although one of the vessels 
was injured by a rusty old six-pounder of ours mounted on 
a log. The couriers who were sent almost hourly to Roch- 
ester to tell the women and children how the fight was pro- 
gressing had hardly news enough to warrant their going, 
and the next morning the British fleet sailed away down 
the lake and ran into Pultneyville, believing it had escaped 
a Yankee ambuscade. Our brave Thirty-one lingered at 
Charlotte with their companions in arms as long as there 
was the slightest cause for so doing, but were glad enough 
to get back to their homes and tell their adventures, which 
they always seemed to think more amusing than otherwise. 
Some eight hundred men in all had gathered at Charlotte 
from the surrounding country, but as a great proportion of 
them were undisciplined, and but poorly armed, a deter- 
mined invasion of the foe had surely been at our cost. 
Had Commodore Yeo turned his four hundred Indians 
upon the country, the History of Rochester had contained a 
page not unlike the story of Cherry Valley and Wyoming. 

The greatest sufferer from "Yeo's Invasion" — which 
did not prove much of an invasion after all — must have 



OUR BRAVE THIRTY-THREE. 105 

been the poor mute who was captured, during the excite- 
ment, on the road between Charlotte and Rochester, and 
under the suspicion that he was a British spy was most 
cruelly tortured. To make him speak he was bound and 
made to stand on a stump, the guns of his captors aimed at 
his heart. As he did nothing but contort himself fearfully, 
he was given another trial, and suspended by a rope over 
the high river bank, a man standing with an axe to cut the 
same if his silence was persisted in. The agony of the 
poor fellow ended in his fainting. When restored to con- 
sciousness, he was released and made off like a maniac to 
the woods, and was never heard of afterwards. 

And so ends the story of Yeo's Invasion. Rochester's 
military glory was not added unto for many a day, and then 
came the battles of Tod-woddle, Hen Peck, and Lyell 
Street, and for those you must go to some of the veterans 
of "The Grays," or "The Light Guards." 



I06 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 




XIII. 

" Clinton's big ditch." 

It was in May, 1814, that our brave Commodore Wolsey 
at Sackett's Harbor received an order from headquarters 
running" thus : — 

" Take the Lady of the Lake and proceed to Onondaga, 
and take in at Nicholas Mickle's furnace a load of ball and 
shot and proceed at once to Buffalo." 

"That means," said the perplexed officer, "that I am to 
go over Oswego Falls and up the river to Onondaga Lake, 
thence ten miles into the country by land to the furnace, 
and returning to Oswego, proceed to the Niagara, and up 
and over Niagara Falls to Buffalo ! " 

The order is a revelation of the ignorance, even in high 
places, of the topography and geography of the Genesee 
Country at that time, and of its difficulties of inland travel. 
There it lay, the great wheat country of the near future, 
depending upon Montreal and Baltimore for its market, for 
the matter of dragging wagon loads of wheat to Albany 
was both difficult and unprofitable. With four yoke of 
oxen, the speculator might, in 1804, get a load of wheat, 
for which he had paid sixty-two and a half cents per bushel, 
from Bloomfield to Albany in twenty days, and sell the 
same for $2.15. If New York city was to receive the prod- 
uce of the State, and if the interior counties were to pros- 
per, there must be a direct highway to the sea-board. Our 
inland navigation must be developed. The southern town- 
ships of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase had in the Sus- 
quehannah great advantage over the northern, that river 



CLINTON'S BIG DITCH. 10/ 

placing them in connection with Philadelphia and Balti- 
more. Montreal had been the prospective market for the 
Genesee Country, until the embargo and the war. It was 
the case of a country developing rich resources, without the 
opportunities for profitable commerce. 

There are many claimants for the honor of originating 
the idea of connecting Lake Erie with the Atlantic Ocean 
by inland navigation, and to no, one individual can it en- 
tirely belong. It was a plain necessity of the times, patent 
to every practical mind. In 1773, Christopher Colles was 
lecturing in New York city upon Inland Lock Navigation. 
He even surveyed the Mohawk Country, and published a 
book upon Roads through New York, but he was thought 
chimerical and impractical of course. There were many 
plans and many advocates of the differing schemes for in- 
land transportation. There was, in time, a Northern Inland 
Lock Navigation Company and a Western Inland Lock 
Navigation Company. These were expected to improve 
the natural water-courses, build short canals between rivers 
and lakes, — one plan being that of reaching Lake Ontario 
at Oswego, and cruising alongshore to Tonawanda Creek, 
and so to Buffalo, leaving Rochesterville out in the cold en- 
tirely, saving our river port. The Little Falls Canal, less 
than three miles long, was finished in 1796. It had five 
locks, and was followed by the building of a canal a mile 
and a quarter long at the German Flats, connecting the 
Mohawk with Wood Creek, making what was called a grand 
canal some seven miles long! Fifteen years was allowed 
this company for completing its work, and after all it was 
so expensive with heavy tolls, that land carriage was pre- 
ferred by the settlers. The idea of a continuous canal, al- 
most independent of the improvement of natural water- 
courses, dawned gradually and duskily upon the popular 
mind ; and to Jesse Hawley, an occasional resident of Roch- 
ester after he had gained his country's hearing, as much as 
to any one, are we indebted for the centralization of con- 
trolling minds upon a practical scheme. Jesse Hawley, from 
his debtor's prison in Canandaigua, wrote in 1807 the papers 



I08 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

for the Genesee " Messenger," above the signature of " Her- 
cules," which did much for bringing about " the exploring 
of the whole route for inland navigation, from the Hudson 
River to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie." 

It was a long fight and a hard one that followed the 
demand for the canal, and nobody was more abused than 
De Witt Clinton, hissed at, and derided. His " big ditch " 
would be "filled with the tears of posterity." He had "a 
bee in his bonnet." Even Jefferson said the Erie Canal 
was built a century too soon. Madison declared it would 
exhaust the resources of the nation, and Rufus King would 
not sanction what would bankrupt the State. Clintonians 
and Bucktails tore each other in the political arena, and the 
Fortieth Session of the New York Legislature, April, 1817, 
was made memorable by two famous bills : one that slavery 
should cease forever in the State of New York, on the 4th 
of July, 1827; the other "the New Canal Bill," shaped by 
De Witt Clinton. A stormy debate followed, in which 
William B. Rochester, of Rochester, New York, "a young 
member of great promise, made his first parliamentary 
efforts in a succession of brilliant speeches." The Canal 
Bill passed both houses after an alarming crisis when it 
seemed to its friends hopelessly lost. " If we must have 
war or a canal, I am in favor of the canal," declared Chan- 
cellor Kent, "and so I vote for this bill." His vote gave 
the majority for the bill. 

This might be considered a digression from the strict 
limitations of our subject, had not Rochester done more 
than any other place in Western New York to bring about 
the result. The incertitude at one time respecting the lo- 
cation of the canal between the Genesee River and Lake 
Erie, — the proposal, with influential advocacy, to carry it 
far beyond our southern boundary, — the exasperating rev- 
elations of official ignorance as to our exact whereabouts, 
— the difficulty of crossing our river, — had awakened our 
people to a thorough understanding of the subject ; and 
their defense of " the big ditch " had had its influence, 
feeble folk as we then seemed to be. July 4th, 181 7, while 



CLIN TOM'S BIG DITCH. IO9 

Rochesterville was celebrating the day with a succession 
of blasts in Johnson's Race, which was then building, De 
Witt Clinton, at Rome, N. Y., in the presence of thousands 
of spectators, at early sunrise, dug with his own hand the 
first shovelful of earth towards the making of the canal 
forever after associated with his name. In eight years and 
four months the whole line from Buffalo to Albany was 
open for navigation, sections of it having been in use since 
1 8 19, boats from Rochester entering the basin at Albany 
as early as November, 1823. 

The fact that in 1834, ten years from the time of the 
completion of the canal, Rochester owned or controlled one 
half of the boats, may be considered as proof of our prac- 
tical investment in the undertaking, even from the begin- 
ning, although the good tax-payers of that time were given 
to saying : " We shall never see it finished, but our chil- 
dren may." 

The longest canal in the world had been built in eight 
and one third years, and November 4, 1824, the State of 
New York, from Buffalo to Manhattan Island, was jubi- 
lantly celebrating the passage of the magnificent flotilla 
that bore De Witt Clinton and a distinguished retinue from 
its western to its eastern terminus. Buffalo's jubilee had 
begun as early as the 26th of October, when the waters of 
Lake Erie had been let into the ditch, the cannon that had 
been planted all along the tow-path transmitting the news 
to New York in one hour and thirty minutes, returning 
New York's response in the same time. 

What a day that was for Rochester ! We who have 
fallen into a way of thinking that the canal was ordained 
for skating rinks and ice fields smile at the wild enthusiasm 
of our forefathers that November day, when they hurrahed 
themselves hoarse at the approach of the canal boat Seneca 
Chief, — its four magnificent gray horses splendidly capari- 
soned conveying false ideas, perhaps, of what the future 
canal horse was to be, — leading the flotilla, each boat 
gorgeously decorated, one called Noah's Ark, with a cargo 
of almost every specimen of fish, flesh, or fowl in pairs, 



no ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

and two Indian boys in native costume. On board of The 
Seneca Chief were the two highly ornamented kegs filled 
with Lake Erie water, and the bottles holding water from 
all parts of the world, which were to be poured, with im- 
pressive ceremony, into the Atlantic Ocean by Governor 
Clinton's own hand. At every village and hamlet on the 
canal some demonstration of the popular feeling had been 
made ; but Rochester had the wonderful aqueduct, and 
Rochester was " The Young Lion of the West," and so it 
was fitting and expected that Rochester would do some- 
thing exceptional, as we must all agree she did, regretting 
the pouring rain that no doubt added to the duties of her 
medical fraternity for months to come. 

The whole population was crowded along the banks of 
the canal long before the military force of the village — 
eight companies in full uniform — began firing the /r// dc 
joic which announced the approach of The Seneca Chief 
and its train. Across the western terminus of the aqueduct 
— a very different affair from the present one, scarcely 
wide enough for the old-fashioned boats — a smart little 
craft was stationed to protect the entrance, its name indica- 
tive of its prowess, — "The Young Lion of the West." 
There must have been some memorizing on the part of The 
Seneca Chief and The Young Lion before this formidable 
encounter, or the following dialogue, reminding us of the 
school exhibitions of primeval times, would have lacked its 
fluidity. 

The crowd under their umbrellas may have wondered for 
a moment at the saucy defiance of the little boat that would 
block the progress of The Seneca Chief, and the challeng- 
ing demand from its prow : — 
" Who comes there .' " 

" Your brothers from the West on the waters of the 
great lakes." 

As the Seneca was laden with the New York delegation, 
this might have confused an ordinary Lion unused to 
metaphor. 

" By what means have they been diverted so far from 
their natural course.'" 



CLINTON'S BIG DITCH. Ill 

"By the channel of the Great Erie Canal." 

" By whose authority, and by whom, was a work of such 
magnitude accomplished ? " (The Young Lion seems open 
to the accusation of unpardonable ignorance, but the Chief 
makes no unfavorable comment.) 

" By the authority and the enterprise of the patriotic 
people of the State of New York," comes in full chorus from 
the deck of The Seneca Chief, and at once The Lion of the 
West gives way, the guns boom, the crowd cheer uproar- 
iously, and the flotilla, with Governor Clinton in full sight, 
and the Lieutenant Governor James Tallmadge, and the 
patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and General Solomon 
Van Rensselaer, and Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, and 
Colonel William Stone, all "Brothers from the West," di- 
verted from New York city by the great occasion, floats 
proudly into the spacious basin at the end of the aqueduct. 
The committees of congratulation receive their guests in 
due form, and now behold them descending from the deck 
of The Seneca Chief, and marching in the procession, bound 
for the old First Presbyterian Church back of the Court 
House, all Rochester and the country round about falling 
into the line, even if the majority of them must wait in the 
rain outside while the Rev. Mr. Penny offers prayer, and 
Timothy Childs makes a stirring address, which the news- 
papers report as " full of words that breathe and thoughts 
that burn." 

Three rousing cheers followed the oration, and then as 
the unchanging custom of the day decreed when festivity 
was in order, there was a procession to " Christopher's," 
on Carroll, now State Street, where a good dinner and a 
surfeit of toasts awaited the crew of the flotilla. General 
Mathews presiding, assisted by Jesse Hawley and Jonathan 
Child. At half past seven The Seneca Chief led the gay 
retinue through the aqueduct, and not until its last flag was 
lost to sight did the multitude cease cheering. There was 
a grand ball that night and a splendid illumination, consid- 
ering they had no Palmer Fire Works in those days. 

The Youmr Lion of the West had followed in the train 



112 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of The Seneca Chief, bearing away EHsha B. Strong, Levi 
Ward, A. V. T. Leavett, Wm. B. Rochester, M. Hulburt, 
A. Reynolds, A, Strong, R. Beach, EHsha Johnson, and 
E. S. Beach. They reached Utica late Sunday morning, 
and let it not be forgotten of Utica that she saw that the 
whole party went to church. In fact the religious tone of 
the whole demonstration is remarkable. Albany, with a 
procession including half of Vermont, led her visitors to 
the Capitol, where the exercises opened and closed with 
jjrayer. The theatre presented a scenic play in which 
there was a canal scene, with boats and horses actually 
moving. A fleet of all the steam- vessels on the Hudson 
towed the flotilla to New York, The Seneca Chief in charge 
of the flag-ship Chancellor Livingston. 

Now to tell all that was done in New York city, — the 
aquatic procession, the speech making, the trades' proces- 
sion, the illumination, the mingling of the waters, the 
governor's ball, etc., — would be impossible here. A great 
battle had been fought and won, and Rochester before all 
others had cause to make merry. It is hard to believe 
when we read of all this rejoicing in New York city, that 
strong opposition to the canal had existed there, and that 
an effort to arrest the work had once been approved of by 
a majority of its delegates in the Assembly. 

Hardly was the rejoicing over before the demand for an 
enlargement of the canal was heard, Rochester heading the 
movement and pushing it in every way. The project of 
enlargement was secondary only to the original scheme. 
The first aqueduct, built at a cost of $83,000, was replaced 
by a wider and deeper one begun in 1835, costing $600,000. 
The original locks were inadequate. The public meetings 
in Rochester, urging the enlargement, were the key-note of 
the popular sentiment. The memorials and resolutions of 
such men as Myron Holley, Henry O'Reilly, Thomas H. 
Rochester, etc., with petitions from our forwarders and 
millers, were not to be ignored. Genesee wheat and flour 
were the controlling power of the Erie Canal, and Roches- 
ter, as the commercial centre of the Genesee Valley, com- 



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CLINTONS BIG DITCH. II3 

manded a hearing concerning the management of the same. 
The enlargement and improvements cost about five times 
as much as the original canal. The first boats carried not 
over forty tons. 

If the Erie Canal was one of the original sources of our 
prosperity, no less did we contribute to make it what it was, 
and that chiefly through the foresight and enterprise of 
.our leading men, who believed that to secure for the State 
of New York the trade of the Western lakes and a portion 
of the valley of the Ohio, the enlargement of the Erie 
Canal was necessary, and would contribute to individual 
wealth and public prosperity. 

The canal produced a wonderful change in the physiog- 
nomy of our city, and it is hard for us now to believe that 
to live upon its immediate banks was once considered most 
desirable. It proved a death-blow to many an aspiring vil- 
lage and the success of as many insignificant hamlets. It 
brought in new phases of social life, and was to many an 
alarming invasion of the Sabbath. " Going across " for us 
to-day is nothing in comparison to a first trip on a " Red 
Bird Packet," racing with a rival line to Albany. There 
stands recorded in an old journal of one of our pioneers 
this item relating to a first journey by canal : "Commend- 
ing my soul to God, and asking his defense from danger, I 
stepped on board the canal-boat, and was soon flying to- 
wards Utica." 

A reminiscence of Henry E. Rochester gives us an amus- 
ing glimpse of our city at the time of the digging of the 
canal. He was a student at Hobart College, and ground 
had been broken here since his leaving home in the early 
autumn. He arrived from Geneva late one evening for a 
bit of vacation, jumped from the stage at Ensworth's, and 
ran up Exchange Street for home. There were few, if any 
street lamps in those days, and the night was dark as could 
be. All at once the foundations of the earth were removed 
for him, and he found himself floundering in a sea of mud. 
He was at the bottom of Clinton's big ditch, although it 
took some time for him to discover his precise locality. 



114 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Dripping with sticky clay, he presented himself at his 
father's door, and enjoyed the fun that followed. "That," 
says Henry E. Rochester, "is my earliest recollection of 
the Erie Canal." . . . 

Mr. Rochester has entertaining reminiscences of his as- 
sociations with the convicts brought here to work on the 
aqueduct. He was permitted to go in and out among them 
freely, and it soon came to pass that his father was at loss 
to know what became of the lad's pocket money. The 
future philanthropist was making his first disbursements 
for " Out Door Relief " in the shape of tobacco to his con- 
fiding friends, whose confidence in him went so far as per- 
mitting him to know the details of a plan for escape, which 
they were contemplating. 

Mr. J. M. Winslow tells another pleasing story of those 
early days of the canal. The grand embankment west of 
Bushnell's Basin was completed, and the commissioners were 
expected to pass over it in their special boat on a certain 
day, in honor of which occasion there was a great turn out 
of the good people in the locality, and mounted officers, be- 
plumed and be-buttoned, rode up and down the tow-path, 
ready to do their royal best in any appointed way when 
the signal heralding the approach of the commissioners 
should be given. It was a moment of great expectancy, 
and the best of Monroe County stood before that distrusted 
embankment, which even the contractors, it was said, had 
no confidence in. 

Now this famous embankment 1,500 feet long and 80 
feet high, is one of the remarkable features of the Erie 
Canal. Wonderful as it was to behold in a state of se- 
curity, each beholder could but imagine what the sight 
would be if " a break " should happen, and the water go 
pouring into the Irondequoit valley. Provision had been 
made for a break, and hereby hangs our tale. At each end 
of the dangerous section was a stop-gate, lying flat at the 
bottom of the canal. In case of need it could be soonest 
uplifted by some one jumping into the water and bringing 
its mechanism into instant play. It would be an oppor- 



CLINTON'S BIG DITCH. II5 

tunity for heroism on the part of ordinary humanity, which 
the dwellers in that quiet neighborhood might watch for 
with vigilance, — an opportunity to win a glorious fame in 
saving a wide tract of country from disastrous inundation. 

The crowd deepens, the hour is getting late, the be- 
plumed officers not a little impatient, when a shrill cry is 
heard from the base of the embankment: "/^ 's going ! It V 
going I It's breaking azvay !'' There was a scampering of 
the panic-stricken crowd in every direction, but those offi- 
cers did not forget their duty as servants of the people. 
Into the canal they leaped and up sprang the gates in a 
trice. What was a thorough soaking of fine uniforms if 
thereby peril might be averted .'' But where was the break, 
and where was the perpetrator of the practical joke? The 
crowd turned in hot pursuit of him, and found him in 
hiding, trembling with terror. They carried him out on 
the mill-flume and threw him into the pond, and were back 
to the embankment in good season to see the commission- 
ers pass over it in safety. This embankment is the largest 
on the canal. The precautionary gates were never brought 
into requisition, although several breaks and some serious, 
ones have occurred in the vicinity. When the Irondequoit 
embankment was built, nearly every male resident of the 
adjoining towns turned out with pick, spade, and wheel- 
barrow, unless physically unable. Some of the wealthiest 
farmers in the county are proud of telling that they worked 
for seventy -five cents a day on the Erie Canal. 

The great work of the Erie Canal was accomplished by 
the enterprise and resources of a single State, and it may 
justly be claimed for Rochester that she was the main- 
spring of much of that enterprise and of those resources. 

We read in O'Reilly's History that "admiration of the 
worth and services of De Witt Clinton caused the Franklin 
Institute of Rochester to propose a subscription among the 
citizens for securing a portrait of that statesman," and that 
Cathn was the artist selected, he finishing the portrait just 
before starting for the West to undertake his work, " The 
North American Indians." A brother of Catlin brought the 



Il6 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

picture to Rochester, and his accidental drowning in the 
river below the Upper Falls while bathing made great ex- 
citement at the time, our home poets making it the theme 
for verses still to be found sacredly treasured in many a 
pioneer scrap-book.^ There is a page or two in Henry 
O'Reilly's "Sketches of Rochester" (1838), which those 
who are not so fortunate as to own a copy of that book 
will be glad to find here. 

"transportation on river, lake, canal, etc. 
genesee river navigation. 

" The Genesee River is navigable for steam-boats and 
other lake vessels from the nortJi line of the city to Lake 
Ontario, a distance of five miles. From near the soiitJi line 
of the city the river is navigable by smaller vessels for 
about forty miles, as far as Fitzhugh's warehouse on the 
Canaseraga Creek, between Mt. Morris and the residence 
of Colonel Fitzhugh, in Groveland, near Geneseo. . . . Be- 
tween the north and south line of the city are the Rapids, 
making an aggregate descent in that short distance of 266 
feet. 

" A small steam-boat ran for a couple of seasons between 
Rochester and the villages southward along the river, 
touching at Scottsville, Avon, York, and other points, for 
the purpose chiefly of towing the freight-boats loaded with 
the grain and other products accumulated at the thriving 
villages of the rich valley of the Genesee. The communi- 
cation between the Erie Canal and the Genesee River is 
now being much improved by an arrangement partly con- 
nected with the Genesee Valley Canal. It will shortly be 
practicable for the Erie Canal boats to cross the Genesee 
River without reference to the aqueduct, a matter of much 
consequence, guarding as it will against any detention of 
navigation in case the old aqueduct fails before the new 
one is completed. The present feeder is being improved, 
and a corresponding cut is making on the west side of the 

1 This picture cost $400. Its present whereabouts I have been unable to 
discover. 



CLINTON'S BIG DITCH. I 1 7 

river as far south as the feeder dam, say a mile and a half 
from the Erie Canal. The cut on the west side of the 
river serves as part of the Genesee Valley Canal ; and thus 
both canals and the river navigation south of Rochester 
are advantageously connected by means that secure the 
canal navigation from interruption in case of difficulty 
about the aqueduct ; a policy recommended strongly by the 
citizens in 1832-33 in a memorial remonstrating against 
the plans for rebuilding the aqueduct which were recom- 
mended in a special report from the Canal Commissioners. 
Although the Genesee Valley Canal will probably withdraw 
the business chiefly from the river for the extent to which 
the river is now used, the navigation of the latter is worthy 
of notice here. The river boats used for bringing wheat to 
Rochester are, we believe, owned by Mr. Kempshall, Mr. 
Ely, and other flour manufacturers. William Tone, residing 
a few miles south of the city, owns several boats, and has 
done much of the transportation. Scottsville, York, Avon, 
Geneseo, Moscow, and Mt. Morris, all have warehouses, to 
accommodate this navigation ; and large quantities of wheat 
are thus brought down in boats alongside the Rochester 
Mills. . . . In 18 18 the exports from the Genesee River 
down the lake to Montreal, during the season of navigation, 
were 26,000 bbls. of flour, 3,653 bbls. pot and pearl ashes, 
1,173 bbls. pork, 190 bbls. whiskey, 214,000 double butt 
staves, together with small quantities of other articles, all 
valued at $380,000. 

"In 1 8 19 the exports in the same way were valued at 
;^400,ooo 

"In 1820 the exports from the Genesee River for Canada 
were 67,468 bbls. flour and other goods, all valued at $375,- 
000. The prices of produce had fallen greatly ; the gen- 
eral price of flour was $2.25 or $2.50 per bbl. ; of wheat 37 
cents per bushel ; and corn from 20 to 25 cents. 

"In 1 82 1 the price of produce fell so low in Canada, and 
the canal partly finished, having opened other and better 
markets, the quantity of produce sent from Genesee River 
to the Canada market became much reduced. . . . The 



ii8 



ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



attention of our citizens ... is now turning to the impor- 
tance of lake navigation. . . . Whatever improvements are 
made at the Rapids of the St. Lawrence or around the Falls 
of the Niagara cannot be indifferent to us — for our steam- 
boats and schooners may thus have direct intercourse 
between Rochester and the shores of the upper lakes, or 
with the cities of the St. Lawrence, if not through that 
noble river to the Atlantic Ocean. 

"In 1836 wheat to the amount of 200,000 bushels was 
imported from Canada, under heavy duties, by some of the 
Rochester dealers in that article." ^ 

The Genesee Valley Canal was completed 1838, and it 
was thought by many that the union of the waters of the 
Alleghany River with those of the Hudson was second in 
importance only to the connection between the latter and 
the great lakes. "When completed," wrote Edwin Wil- 
liams, " it is believed more property will pass upon it, to 
and from Rochester, than on the Erie Canal west of the 
place." It put an end to the river navigation, but its tri- 
umph was short, and the railroad along the malarial ditch 
to-day seems a prophecy that the iron track will yet be sup- 
planted by some means of transportation as much its supe- 
rior as is the locomotive to the jaded beast of the tow-path. 

^ Sketches of Rochester, p. 353. 




Keg from which Clinton poured the Water of 
Lake Erie into the Atlantic. 

Copied /rovi Mrt. Lamb's " History 0/ New York City." 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. II9 



XIV. 

A DECADE MEMORABLE. 
1824-I834. 

I. The Old Map, etc. — 2. The Sabbath Agitation. — 3. Revivals. — 4- The 
Museum.— 5. Missionary and Reform Movements. — 6. Training Day. — 
7. Railroads.— 8. La Fayette. — 9. The Morgan Affair. — 10. The Good- 
Enough Morgan Affair.— 11. The Arcade, etc. — 12. Old High School.— 
13. Sam Patch.— 14. The Cholera. — 15. The City of Rochester. 

The map of the village of Rochester in 1820, as drawn 
by the publisher, H. N. Fenn, from actual survey, with out- 
lines of houses few and far between, save on the main 
street near the river, Carroll Street, and the immediate 
neighborhood of the Four Corners, is an illustration of the 
instability of the names of the early thoroughfares, as well 
as of the' marvelous growth of the settlement in those first 
years. There is not a house on North Clinton Street ; on 
that old map Monroe Avenue is the "State Road to Canan- 
daigua." There is no street east of Clinton, but quite a 
settlement in Frankford, around McCracken's tavern. Not 
a house on what we call Franklin Street, — then it was 
Washington,— and here is the Franklin of that day, quite 
in the sparsely settled western district, the North Wash- 
ington of 1884. Away out on the southern border of the 
map, quite alone in its otherwise blank section, south of 
Troup Street, is a house marked H. Montgomery, and as 
the framework and not a little besides of that fine old 
dwelling is still standing, and that not far from its original 
location, — the residence to-day of Mrs. Abelard Reynolds, 
—it is not a hard matter when standing at its hospitable 
portal, to imagine what it was when a daughter of Colonel 



I20 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Rochester entered it as a bride, its well-kept grounds reach- 
ing to the river bank, and its long approach under great 
locust-trees winding up to the house from the country- 
road, now Plymouth Avenue. It is said that when Mr. 
Montgomery met the beautiful Miss Rochester in the gay 
and aristocratic society for which Bath was famous, and 
married her from her father's house in Dansville, the excla- 
mation of some of his Philadelphia friends upon first seeing 
her was, "Why she is zvJiitc ! " their ideas of Western New 
York leading them to conclude that the young pioneer had 
wedded an Indian maiden of course. 

Another house in the suburbs, with grounds about it, is 
that of S. J. Andrews, corner of St. Paul and Andrews 
streets ; J. Mason opposite has a large tract seemingly all to 
himself. There is a bridge across the river between where 
Andrews Street bridge and that of the railroad is to-day, 
and well-known names are found in unexpected localities. 

The story of the first naming and laying out of our 
streets is a long one, and the explanation for some of the 
erratic meanderings most interesting. Culvers Road, or 
Blossom Street (now East Avenue), had been laid out by 
the surveyors as far as the liberty pole, when it was dis- 
covered that continuing their direct course would bring 
them far lower down the river than was desired. One went 
ahead on the straight line, and hallooed from high trees to 
show where they were coming out. It would never do, 
and so we have that turn at the liberty pole from East 
Avenue into Main Street. Franklin Street, as we call it, 
was afterwards laid out that there might be a direct stage 
route from the east to Hanford's Landing. Court Street 
and its bridge came to pass in the rivalry of the old stage 
lines. There were two companies fighting for the public 
patronage. One drove up at Ensworth's tavern (Powers 
Corner). The opposition line had headquarters at the old 
Rochester House on the canal, at Exchange Street, and 
Court Street was made resonant in its infant days by the 
flying horses, the cracking whips, and the twanging horns 
of the line, whose name matters little to us of to-day. The 



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A DECADE MEMORABLE. 121 

bend in Chestnut Street, seemingly so unreasonable to 
present lot owners, came about because Enos Stone had 
sold nine acres in a square to Everard Peck, on the south 
side of Main 'or Pittsford Street, one of the temporary 
names of East Avenue. Chestnut Street was laid out on 
the west line of that lot. If carried out straight, it would 
have struck Monroe Street near Lancaster. 

Nothino- in Rochester to-day bears the name of one ot 
the original proprietors of the One Hundred Acre Tract 
Maior Carroll, because the trustees of the village in a fit o 
resentment decreed such forever should be his punishment 
for brino-ing suit against the village at an early day to re- 
cover the b^ed of the river on the north side of Main Street 
brid-e then occupied as a market. He had sold to the 
trusrees the lot corner of Mason (Front) and Mam streets 
bordered by the river, and a market had been built on 
piers Carroll brought an action of ejectment, claiming he 
sold only sixty feet. This so incensed our good people, 
who claimed to the centre of the river, Carroll Street was 
named State at once, and so remaineth. Colonel Fitzhugh 
still retains the honor of having a street called by his 
name but there is no telUng how soon our capricious city 
fathers may give it another. Historical associations count 
for little with the average mayor and alderman, else the old 
Buffalo Road had not been utterly forgotten m West 
Main Street;" Sophia, in honor of Mrs. Nathamel Roches- 
ter in Plymouth Avenue ; and General Riley s name re- 
mo'ved from his "incendiary tract," as the early settlers 
called those streets he had decreed on his map should be 
known as Mathews. Kirk, Tappan, Weld, Phmney, and 
Delevan. University Avenue is a most fitting name for 
the street upon which our university is situated, all admit , 
but have we no cause for dissatisfaction when the names 
of our pioneer land-owners are removed from streets to suit 
the whim of ofBcials whose changes may be changed to- 

""Tuen' Street, let it be remembered, was named for John 
Allen, "Honest John" of precious memory, an ex-mayor, 



122 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

and largely interested in the canal outside of his own pri- 
vate business connected therewith, not in honor of Indian 
Allan, as some have supposed. Washington Square was 
the gift of Elisha Johnson, and its trees were originally 
the forest growth. The old elm in front of the residence 
of Mrs. Hoyt on the north side was planted by the hand of 
a lady called "the belle of Rochester." The big elm on 
South Clinton is said to be a child of the forest primeval, 
and so let us all unite in saying, 

" Woodman spare that tree." 

Front Street is Mason Street on the old map. When 
the fine new market was completed in 1837, Mason Street 
was named Market by the city fathers. Then the opening 
of the street leading from its front to State Street made 
them to change their minds. The new street should be 
]\Iarket Street, and Mason Street must accept its old name 
again. This decision was of short duration, however, and 
Front Street was the appellation officially conferred one 
week after. 

Let this brief allusion to the early naming of our streets 
provoke interest in a subject that will amply repay study, 
and, it is hoped, strengthen the desire manifested of late, 
that old names of old streets may not be so ruthlessly cast 
aside, associated as they frequently are with persons and 
events interwoven with our history. 

It appeared at one time that we might have contention 
in retaining the name of our village. Another post-office 
in the State rejoiced in the name of Rochester, and about 
1820 it was decided that one of the claimants must yield 
to the other. Of course we had not the remotest idea of 
yielding, but the village of AccoTd, Ulster County, is enti- 
tled to our gratitude, notwithstanding, and we may be par- 
doned in wishing it had chosen a prettier name. 

So much by way of preface to what we may fitly call the 
Decade Memorable, the ten years preceding our incorpora- 
tion as one of the cities of the Empire State. 

The individuality of the promising, pushing little town 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 23 

was already pronounced. There was nothing commonplace 
about it. It was talked about. It was always doing some- 
thing that kept its name in the newspapers. It was as 
noisy as its Falls, and the tide of its political influence was 
not unlike that of the Genesee above the Cataract. Some- 
thing the country was interested in was forever happening 
in Rochester. Its reformatory movements were not always 
without the blaze of fanaticism that commands attention at 
least, or a unique peculiarity conferring their fame indis- 
putably upon their place of origin. And so it came to 
pass at an early day that the extraordinary rather than the 
ordinary was looked for in Rochester, and expectancy was 
gratified. " Rochester," wrote Thurlow Weed, in his auto- 
biography, of the city where the foundations of his after 
success was laid, "was made up of young, dashing, generous 
people, attracted there from Eastern New York and New 
England by reports of its rapidly developing elements of 
prosperity. There were few or no idlers there. ... It was 
no place for the slow, mousing, and close-fisted." It was, 
he might have added, a centralization of original, far-seeing 
minds, who began a series of agitating movements, in or- 
ganizing the society which developed into the American 
Bible Society, scattering its Bibles over the whole country. 
As early as 1821 the Monroe County Bible Society was 
founded, Levi Ward, President ; but not until 1825 did its 
characteristic mission begin, at a meeting of its friends at 
the Eagle Tavern, when perhaps Josiah Bissell, Jr., called 
"Leather Stocking" among his host of friends, projected 
the scheme which sent sub-agents through the county giv- 
ing Bibles to those who were destitute of them and could 
not buy. And that, be it known, was the beginning of the 
American Bible Society. 

The Sunday-School campaign of those days was an ag- 
gresssive one. There were conventions and celebrations, 
much marching of the children to Washington Square or 
to one of the churches for singing ; long speeches confer- 
ring of badges, and gatherings around long tables laden 
with cake and lemonade. General A. W. Riley still has 



124 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the cane with which he marshaled the first Sabbath-School 
Convention held in Rochester, when 2,000 children with 
their teachers were gathered in Washington Square. Jo- 
siah Bissell, Jr., and A. W. Riley were what was called a 
" make or break team," very active and somewhat ultra in 
religious and reform movements, ready to spend time, 
money, and strength for any cause they had in hand, and 
they were never empty-handed. They were large land- 
owners and daring speculators, and had as much to do as 
many with shaping the future of Rochester. It was " Bis- 
sell and Riley " that built the first meeting-house of the 
Third Presbyterian Church in one lucek, fifty feet long and 
twenty -five feet wide, on North Clinton Street, a little 
north of the present Washington Hall Block. The congre- 
gation were meeting in a school-house on the corner of 
Mortimer Street, which was too small. The pastor, Mr. 
Church, conferred with the brethren after service one Sun- 
day afternoon as to what should be done. " Bissell and 
Riley " were there, and said a new meeting-house should 
be ready for the next Sabbath, and so it was, to the 
amazement of those who went into its courts with thanks- 
giving. General Riley gave the lot for the first orphan 
asylum, corner of Asylum and Scio. It was valued when 
given at $2,000, — was sold when the asylum was moved to 
its present location for $4,500. 

THE SABBATH AGITATION. 

It may be questioned if Rochester was ever responsi- 
ble for a stormier agitation than the one she originated 
and kept alive on the Sabbath Question. That it was 
wicked to run stages and boats on Sunday, and quite as 
wicked to patronize those who did, was hotly proclaimed 
from Rochester, and Aristarchus Champion, and "Bissell 
and Riley" headed the movement for the suppression of Sun- 
day travel, — starting a line of Pioneer Stages at an expense 
of about $60,000, partly contributed as stock, — petitioning 
Congress for the abolishing of Sunday mails, circulating 
pledges even, for the signing of all good Christians, wherein 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 25 ' 

they solemnly promised never to patronize boats or stages 
run upon the Sabbath Day. A little sheet, called " Plain 
Truth," came out in hot opposition to all this, and in look- 
ing it over it is hard to decide which party had the ex- 
cess of fanatical intolerance. "What cannot be accom- 
plished by moral suasion must be done by physical force," 
comes from the pulpit of the Third Presbyterian Church. 
" Shall we become SLAVES to an order of men who style 
themselves Presbyterians ? " shrieks the element of nega- 
tivity. At the great meeting held in Auburn protesting 
against a religious party in politics, we find W. H. Seward 
denouncing Sabbatical intolerance. The zeal of the oppo- 
site party leads its advocates to insist on publicly asking a 
blessing at meals in hotels, etc. Bissell is charged with 
refusing to accept a pair of boots that were sent him on a 
Sunday stage-coach, and here is the report of what was 
said by a Monroe County divine before a convention in 
Philadelphia, when asked how the Pioneer line of stages 
was succeeding : — 

"The Pioneer Line of stages must, will, and shall suc- 
ceed. I will sacrifice every cent of my property to support 
it. If necessary, I will take the bread from my children's 
mouths for its support. It is on God's side and must pros- 
per. Rather than see this pious undertaking crushed, — 
rather than see the hopes of God's people cloven down, I 
will write Reverend on the front of my hat, mount the Pio- 
neer stage box, take the reins and drive the coach myself," 
At this, of course, the scoffers howl in derision, and the 
press is full of stories, etc., told at the expense of the Pio- 
neer Line. Here are a few of the " Wants " of the New 
York " Telescope " : — 

"Wanted. A good Orthodox family horse which must 
do work on the Christian Sabbath, and which will not need 
any meat or drink on that day. 

" Money Wanted. ^10,000 on ample security at 6 per 
cent., the interest to stop on Sunday. Orthodox money 
preferred." . . . 

Lewis Tappan gave $3,000 for supporting a Christian 



126 rochestf:r: a story historical. 

line of stages. Alarmists cry out that there is an impend- 
ing danger — the union of Church and State — that Tract 
Societies are so many nests of vultures' eggs — and that 
Bible Societies are creating a moneyed aristocracy. Above 
the babel of vituperation the voice of a wise conservatism 
is heard at last. At a public meeting held in the long 
room of the Clinton House, Rochester, Wm. B. Rochester 
in the chair, and A. M. Schermerhorn, Secretary, reso- 
lutions were adopted in favor of the Sunday mails and 
against compulsory measures for enforcing the better ob- 
servance of the Lord's Day. We find the names of promi- 
nent citizens on the committees appointed at this meeting 
for preparing and presenting for signatures a suitable 
memorial to be sent to the Postmaster General as an ex- 
pression of the wishes of the meeting in relation to a Sun- 
day mail. It will interest my readers to see the names 
not only of those identified with this assembly, but that of 
the "Friends of the Fourth Commandment," held several 
months before. 

The committee upon preparing and presenting resolu- 
tions for the conservative party was E. Griffin, Nathaniel 
Rossiter, Dr. Elwood, Elisha Johnson, and Heman Norton. 

WARD COMMITTEES. 

First Ward. — Henry O'Reilly, William T. Cuyler, E. Griffin, 
Wm. Brewster, Anson Coleman, E. F. Marshall, 

Second JFard. — Warham Whitney, E. M. Parsons, Samuel 
Stone, A. M. Schermerhorn, S. S. Alcott, Seth Saxton. 

Third Ward. — Jonathan Child, Heman Norton. T. H. Roch- 
ester, Isaac Hills, Ebenezer Watts, Josiah Sheldon. 

Fourth Ward. — Elisha Johnson, John Gilbert, Isaac Marsh, 
Miles Carter, Daniel Tinker, James Valiet 

Fifth Ward. — Enos Stone, Nathaniel Rossiter, R. Van Kleeck, 
S. G. Andrews, Jacob Graves, Samuel Works. 

Among the facts stated in the terse letter to the Post- 
master General was that the village had a population of 
12,000 souls, and " the amount of postage for the year end- 
ing 30th September, 1828, was $6,808.67." " From this 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 12 J 

fact some estimate can be had of our correspondence, and 
of the necessity of giving facilities to that correspondence." 

The undersigned names concurred in the resolutions of 
the opposition, when some 400 persons met at the Clinton 
House to denounce the prevailing evils of Sabbath Break- 
ing:— 

A. W. Riley, Chairman ; D. Sibley, Secretary ; E. Peck, C. J. 
Hill, L. A. Ward, S. Murdock, J. Bissell, Jr., Thos. Kempshall, 
H. N. Langworthy, P. Smith, A. Wakelee, F. Starr, A. Chapin, 
W. H. Ward, H. Raymond, J. Watts, A. Champion, L. Ward, Jr., 
D. D. Hatch, W. Kempshall, E. Cook, W. Brewster, A. Reynolds, 
B. Campbell. E. D. Smith, T. Egleston, J. Harris, S. P. Gould, C. 
Dunning, J. Peck, David Hoyt, O. Sage, J. K. Livingston, J. H. 
Thompson, O. N. Bush, H. Ely, D. Scoville, L. L. Peet. 

The Pioneer Line was in one sense a failure, and Josiah 
Bissell, Jr., and A, W. Riley were heavy losers with others, 
but the agitation of the subject which placed their com- 
fortable and well managed coaches upon the road resulted 
in great and lasting good. Public sentiment was educated 
to a higher regard for the Lord's Day ; and although the 
extreme measures of the Sabbath party were defeated, it 
had gained much for religion and true progress. 

REVIVALS. 

Rochester's individuality in those early years was charac- 
terized by a fanatical restlessness demanding a sphere of 
excitement. When was it not an enthusiast with a mission 
of some sort for its own, if not the world's salvation .? The 
spirit of the Thebean monks, the Crusaders, the Jesuit 
Missionary, Joan of Arc, and like spirits, is manifested in 
its irrepressible tendency to make converts to something at 
any cost. The religious revivals of our early days spent 
themselves with a violence that left no little wreck behind, 
wonderful as was the harvesting of souls. The private 
journals of those days — and I have a pile of them before 
me — are filled with morbid introspection and self-dissec- 
tion, which makes them of less value to the antiquarian 
than to the student of psychological distempers. The Rev. 



128 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Charles G. Finney was one of the most successful evangel- 
ists who labored here, converting many who proved to be the 
strength of our churches for the remainder of their lives. 

The first public temperance meeting in Rochester was 
held in July, 1828, and from the active workers in the 
cause here the influence went forth that in time awoke the 
land to a consideration of the question. Dr. Penney, the 
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, preached the first 
temperance sermon in Ireland, it is said ; and Gen. Riley, 
— called the "old war horse" of the temperance move- 
ment, — a man who has made over eight thousand temper- 
ance speeches, and distributed six thousand temperance 
medals in Europe and America, not only claims for Roch- 
ester the honor of being the head spring of the movement, 
but adds that the Woman's Crusade in the West, of a few 
years ago, received its direct inspiration from here. 

THE MUSEUM. 

Prof. Henry A. Ward's world-famous museum, where any 
day one can see, for the asking, giant salamanders from 
Japan, turquois from New Mexico, the last crop of meteor- 
ites, — anything, in short, the student in natural science 
may crave to look upon, — hardly fills the place in the Roch- 
ester of 1884 that did Bishop's dusty little museum in the 
old days, when, for twenty-five cents, one could behold not 
only " some small remains of the mastodon found in Perrin- 
ton," but wax figures whose glittering eyes, and genuine 
daggers, and redundant hair, made little children scream 
with terror. There was Othello not smothering, but stab- 
bing Desdemona, and Indians with terrible names scalp- 
ing settlers, and soldiers in smart uniforms swinging ver- 
itable swords. There was Lady Jane Grey, and Robert 
Bruce, and La Fayette, and Washington, almost anybody, 
in short, the most curious would care to see, " true as 
life." It was at the museum that the learned pig was ex- 
hibited, — that famous pig that could pick out any play- 
ing card called for, spell, and add. It was at the museum 
that every unique monstrosity traveling about the coun- 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 29 

try was sure to be introduced to the Rochester public. 
One morning the press advertised a new curiosity at the 
museum, something unHke anything offered before. There 
it was in a case — an exorbitant dentist's bill for filling the 
tooth of the proprietor. All day long the museum hand- 
organ ground out its melody near the Four Corners. In its 
pauses the screeching of its parrots might be heard far up 
the street. . . . And what became of the figures, its grand- 
est attraction.^ Our pyrotechnist, James Palmer, tells that 
story. They fell into the possession of Silas O. Smith some 
time before St. Luke's Church was moved to build a mis- 
sion on the east side. Silas O. Smith had no use for wax- 
works, but he did desire to make all things work together 
for the foundation of the new chapel, whose congregation 
was meeting temporarily in Palmer's Hall. If Mr. Palmer 
would buy the wax-works, the money received would be 
given to the mission. Mr. Palmer paid one hundred dol- 
lars for the unique collection that must have cost the orig- 
inal owner a far greater sum. That one hundred dollars 
went to the foundation stones of Christ Church, East Ave- 
nue, and was the first money contributed therefor. . . , 
Some of us can testify that those wax figures scattered 
along the entrance hall, — Gen. La Fayette in a new role, 
extending a welcoming hand at the top of the stairway, — 
did much for increasing the attendance upon the Sunday- 
School. The child who could slip away unseen, and mount 
the forbidden stairway leading to the upper hall, where 
transfixed beauties stood confronting every shape of re- 
venge, agony, and patriotism, was in danger of forgetting 
catechism and collect for that day at least, nor was it an 
easy matter to secure his attendance upon another school. 

Mr. Palmer sold the unique collection to a museum in 
Columbus, Ohio, in 1862, and possibly the Lady Jane Grey 
of the infantile raptures of some of us may be seen there 
to-day as Mrs. Hayes, Margaret Mather, or Mary Anderson. 

The wonderful metamorphosis which wax creations may 
evolve is illustrated in Mr. Palmer's story of the fate of 
" the Rochester beauty," which had as many more definite 
9 



130 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

names as there were lovelorn swains to confer them. Mr. 
Palmer prefaces his reminiscence by saying that these wax- 
works were superior to any in New York city. They were, 
in fact, a rare importation, — one of the exceptional things 
that fell to Rochester by the law of its destiny. When 
he bought them of Mr. Smith, it was his intention to bring 
them out as good as new for the delight of the patrons of 
his cosmoramic views ; and as the collection would hardly 
be complete without what was then demanded of wax, — 
William Tell shooting the apple from the head of his son, 
— Mr. Palmer proceeded to transform Othello, who had per- 
sisted in stabbing Desdemona instead of smothering her, 
into Gessler, the tyrant, while a nameless figure answered 
for Tell, " the Rochester beauty " filling the part of the 
patriot's son. But Tell needed a hand wherewith to handle 
his bow. " Having melted all the odds and ends of wax 
anatomy I could find," says Mr. Palmer, " the matter of the 
right complexion giving me no end of trouble, — I prevailed 
upon a friend to pose his freedom-loving hand for a model ; 
but as we knew nothing of the necessity of preparing for 
the operation by shaving, the getting rid of the mould was 
something like skinning eels, and perhaps the laugh was all 
on one side. The wax hand was a success, however, but 
the owner of the model had little inclination to sit again." 

MISSIONARY AND REFORM MOVEMENTS. 

The spirit of missions in Rochester made manifest de- 
velopment as early as 181 8, the Christian women of the 
village heading a movement for the benefit of destitute 
congregations in the vicinity. A " Female Missionary 
Society " was organized, Mrs. Elizabeth Backus, President. 
The name of Backus since that time has never been lost 
from our charitable enterprises. In 1822 "The Rochester 
Female Charitable Society " was founded, "embracing in 
harmonious union all denominations," — its object the es- 
tablishment of charity schools, and the relief of the poor in 
sickness. This society, still in vigorous existence, needs 
no description nor words of commendation here, but the 







r;:Ji^^^:Vf^tt ''<^'^ 



—-Jlvi^^^^v'itf ;■•- .. 



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CHRIST CHURCH. 
East Avenue, as built in 1S55. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 131 

names of its original officers and visitors will be read with 
interest to-day by those who can find in our present chari- 
table organizations many of the descendants of this old 
executive board. The first meeting of the society was held 
at the house of Everard Peck. Many are the blessed 
streams outflowing from that home. Mrs. Dr. Levi Ward 
was elected President ; Mrs. Everard Peck, Treasurer. Mrs. 
Abelard Reynolds attended the meeting. The early rec- 
ords of the society were lost, but the names of the treas- 
urers from 1823 to 1826 are as follows : — 

1823. Mrs. F. Whittlesey. (Still living — 1884.) 

1824. Mrs. Coleman. 

1825. Mrs. I. West. 

1826. Mrs. Jonathan Child. 

The records are preserved from 1827. In that year we 
find Mrs. James K. Livingston, President ; Mrs. Mary 
Scovel, Vice President (The orthography given is that of 
the Recording Secretary.) 

Directors. — Mrs. Sampson, Mrs. Burr, Mrs. Plumb, Mrs. A, 
Alcott, Mrs. Coleman, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Bissell, Mrs. Cumming, 
Mrs. Beach. 

School Couimittec. — Mrs. T. H. Rochester, Mrs. Peck, Mrs. 
Hurlburt, Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Child, Mrs. West, Mrs. Dunning, 
Mrs. Mathews. 

Treasurer. — Mrs. F. Whittlesey. 

Collectors. — Mrs. Babbet, Mrs. Pomeroy, Miss S. Ward. 

Superintendent of Schools. — Miss Ewing, Miss Stone. 

Visitors. — Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Henry, Mrs. Abel, Mrs. Coleman, 
Mrs. Cuyler, Mrs. West, Mrs. R. Backus, Mrs. Sheldon, Mrs. 
Reynolds, Mrs. Hurlburt, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Scovel, Mrs. Parsons, 
Miss Harral, Miss E. Ward. 

Many of the present board of managers have been con- 
nected with the charitable society for years. For further 
details of the society see Statistical Department. 

The young men of Rochesterville organized a Domestic 
Missionary Society as early as 1821, sending missionaries 
to Niagara County, then almost a wilderness, and we find 



132 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

a Foreign Mission Society in 1827, which held monthly 
" Concerts of Prayer " for the conversion of the world, and 
was the direct means of leading eleven Rochester Christians 
to go forth for the salvation of the heathen beyond her 
borders. The missionary zeal of this marvelously growing 
village demanded many outlets. There was the Tract 
Society as early as 1826, Levi A. Ward, President, that 
scattered religious leaflets at every door and upon canal 
boats, in taverns, wherever the word in season had even 
faint chance of finding root. The friends of this cause 
presented a monthly tract to each family in the city which 
would receive it. Then of organizations for the children 
there was surely no lack, for we read of three contemporary 
" Unions," — " The Monroe Sunday-School Union," " The 
Monroe Sabbath-School Union," and " The Genesee Sab- 
bath-School Union." The distinctive lines between these 
missions were no doubt quite as reasonable as our pad- 
dock-limitations of to-day. There was an association of 
Sabbath-School Teachers, and a Sabbath-School Depository, 
an Orphan Asylum, and a Young Men's Association, whose 
lectures upon Anatomy, Physiology, and kindred subjects 
were well attended, — home talent as a rule furnishing the 
lectures every Tuesday and Friday evening during the sea- 
son. The Mechanics' Literary Association and Appren- 
tices' Library and the Rochester Athenaeum were each 
maintaining a public library, and contributing good lectures. 
The young lawyers had their Pi Beta Gamma, with John 
C. Chumasero as President, all for " improvement in ora- 
tory," and practice in debate. There was " The Rochester 
Academy of Sacred Music," that gave the world the famous 
ballad-singer Henry Russell ; three Temperance Societies, 
and an Anti-Slavery Society that discussed the subject of 
abolition, and kept it before the public with remarkable 
discretion for those times. O'Reilly gives us the names 
of the officers of the Anti-Slavery Society for 1838. They 
were as follows : — 

Lindley M. Moore, President ; George A. Avery, Rus- 
sell Green, O. N. Bush, David Scoville, Vice Presidents ; 








SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH. 

Corner Main and North Clinton Streets. 

Present site of Washington Hall. 

Purchased of 

Third Presbyterian Church, 1S34. 

Burned, 1859. 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Built, 1824. 

Sold to the City for Site of 

City HaU, 1871. 




ST. LUKE'S CHURCH, P. E. 

Built, 1S25. 
In use, 18S4. 



ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH, R. C. 

Corner of Piatt and Frank Streets. 

Built, 1823. 

Site of present Cathedral. 



From O'Rally, iS^S- 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 33 

Oren Sage, Treasurer ; S. D. Porter, Corresponding Sec- 
retary ; E, F. Marshall, Recording Secretary. An Anti- 
Slavery State Convention was held here in the Court 
House January loth and nth, 1838. 

TRAINING DAY. 

Those were the times of the old Training Days, when the 
now obsolete militia laws requiring " all able-bodied free 
white male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty- 
five " to attend " company, battalion, or regimental muster 
or training," with due accoutrements and ammunition, the 
penalties for non-compliance being severe and rigidly en- 
forced. The failure to appear, " armed and equipped as 
the law directs," subjected the delinquent to court-martial ; 
and as there was a prevailing inability and unwillingness 
among patriots at that time to submit to the requirements 
of Training Day, unless belonging to the military, the 
court-martial had its hands full, and many of those who did 
comply dressed themselves in ludicrous costumes, — one of 
our captains, we are told, leading his host of " Fantasticks" 
or " Invincibles" mounted on a bull, with a handsaw for his 
sufficient weapon of war. Colonel Amos Sawyer marshaled 
" The Invincibles," and there are those still among us who 
can remember him tricked out as Falstaff, calling to his 
men to "left wheel " on State Street corner one day, and 
at their failure to do so adding, " Why in Jupiter don't you 
left wheel .-' " Those were halcyon days for wags like John 
Robinson, Reuben Bunnel, Sam Drake, and Sedge Hall ; 
but once it came to pass in Brighton, they tell us, that John 
Robinson was put under guard for his pranks, and kept 
marching up and down a hollow square at the point of the 
bayonet. Colonel Aaron Newton was a magnate not to be 
trifled with when in command, as many of the Floodwoods ^ 
learned to their cost, when they carried their fun a trifle too 
far, and gave him a band beating a tobacco keg for a drum, 
and an old fife, whose performer could only play a rambling 
snatch from Bonaparte crossing the Rhine. Of course a 

'^ All but uniformed militia companies were called Floodwoods. 



134 



ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



law was passed making such high sport a misdemeanor ; but 
what did that matter when popular sentiment was with the 
frolickers, and Training Day was looked for as our South- 
ern friends count on Mardi Gras ? The mock battles were 
a farce beyond description, when the contending armies in 
grotesque array charged with rolling-pins, brooms, hay- 
forks, or anything that might be called a weapon of offense. 
Training Day was at last abolished, and perhaps none were 
better satisfied than the Fantastic Invincibles themselves, 
serious as Rochester must have seemed without their regu- 
lar frolics.^ 




Tonnewanta Railroad Bridge. (,1838.) 



RAILROADS. 

All this was several years before the first locomotive had 
been brought to Rochester on a canal boat, The Young 
Lion, a " pony " for use in building the Auburn road. Steam 
railroads were talked of, and were in operation, but not in 
Rochester. Even as late as 1838, when O'Reilly's History 

1 "This burlesque (Fantastics) originated in this city, and ISIr. John Robin- 
son, then exercising the tonsorial art, was the originator of this powerful engine 
of ridicule, that conquered more than ninety thousand old muskets, mullein 
stalks, and broom-handles, in the hands of brave men thoroughly disgusted 
with puerile and useless tomfoolery. ... It was so effectual in this city it ran 
like a prairie fire over the whole State. . . . And in one year there was not an 
organized company of country militia called Floodwoods in the State." — L. B. 
Langworthy, Notes and Reminiscences of Rochester, iS68. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE 1 35 

was published, its author could say: "As the whole route 
between Auburn and Albany will be completed about the 
same time as the Rochester and Auburn Railroad, we may 
anticipate that, in the course of three years, the journey 
between Rochester and New York will be made by railroad 
and steam-boat within twenty-four hours, or between sun- 
rise on one day and the same period the day following. 
Visionary as the prediction may seem at first sight, a little 
calculation will show its practicability and probability." 
Under the head of the Tonnewanta Railroad, on which 
traveling by locomotive was begun between Rochester and 
Batavia, May, 1837, we read: "When the entire route 
from Rochester to Buffalo is completed, even before the 
Rochester and Auburn road is finished, it is estimated that 
not less than four or five hundred passengers will pass 
daily from point to point during the traveling season of the 
year. . . . The whole road will be run, it is contemplated, 
under a single arrangement, with one set of cars and loco- 
motives. . . . We are hardly too sanguine in assuming 
that, within two years, or in the year 1840, the entire route 
from Boston to Buffalo, through the city of Rochester, will 
be in active and successful operation." 




Carthage Railroad. 

Until then, Rochester was happy in its one railroad to 
Carthage, — a horse railroad, with " pleasure cars " thereon, 
— two horses driven tandem. Captain Cheshire playing his 
A flat key-bug] e a little before the train started from the 
east end of the old aqueduct, at the head of Water Street, 
that no one need miss the steam-boat at the northern ter- 
minus of the route for lack of clear warning. What a de- 
lightful trip that was on a balmy day, close to the east bank 
of the river, at some points only a few feet from the awful 
precipice, through the green fields of Dublin, to the pictur- 



136 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

esq Lie road down to the wharf. There was an inclined 
plane for the transit of goods, and the rash excursionist 
sometimes ventured aboard ; but occasional accidents made 
walking preferable to such venture, particularly as cars, on 
the western bank at least, had been known to break away 
and land in the middle of the river. The road was two 
miles long, and John Greig, of Canandaigua, was its presi- 
dent ; F. M. Haight, its secretary, and A. M. Schermerhorn, 
its treasurer, lived in Rochester. Horace Hooker & Co. 
were the lessees of the road, and Mr. Hinsdale the agent. 

LA FAYETTE, 1 825. 

It was in the summer of 1825 that General La Fayette 
gave the people of Rochester the happy occasion of wel- 
coming him to the stirring village that was not in exist- 
ence when he left our shores thirty-nine years before. 
Every one within the radius of Rochester who could possi- 
bly reach the village was there that June day, bright and 
early, to see the man the nation delighted to honor, and 
wdiose progress through the land was a triumphal proces- 
sion, each place on his route seeking to outvie all others 
in expression of sincere joy. It was a memorable day for 
Rochester, and everything that could contribute to the per- 
fection of the hero's welcome was brought into requisition 
by the able committee, with Dr. Levi Ward and James K. 
Livingston at its head. Hon. Jacob Gould and Judge 
Ashley Sampson were on the Reception Committee. The 
town was gay with bunting and arches of evergreens and 
flowers. Couriers heralded the approach of the packet 
bearing the beloved hero, his son, George Washington La 
Fayette, courtly and handsome. General Philip Van Court- 
landt, and a party of ladies and gentlemen well known in 
political and high social life. Three miles west of our ex- 
pectant metropolis, Rochester gave her first welcome to her 
honored guest in King's Basin, Greece, Judge Sampson ex- 
pressing the same in these words : — 

" General La Fayette, our country's benefactor, in behalf 
of the citizens of Rochester, I bid you a cordial welcome to 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 37 

our village." The General, to whom such official greeting 
had long since become at least a tri-daily occurrence, replied 
with graceful cordiality : " Sir, you are very kind. I thank 
you." On the outskirts of the village two young girls, 
dressed in white, were duly escorted to the pack'et,''and 
taken on board, dropping at General La Fayette's feet a 
bouquet of beautiful flowers, which he at once gave to his 
, son with orders for careful preservation. Upon alighting 
at Child's Basin, he was conducted to the magnificentl}^ 
draped platform, where Wm. B. Rochester made an address 
of welcome. A banquet at the Clinton Hotel was next in 
order, and a drive through the city. Among the pleasing 
incidents of the day was one illustrating General La Fay- 
ette's wonderful memory of faces. A daughter of Judge 
Church was the guest of Mrs. Colonel Rochester, and 
among those presented to General La Fayette. Her mother 
was a daughter of General Schuyler, his old companion in 
arms. The resemblance between grandfather and grand- 
daughter was marked, but it was not expected that General 
La Fayette should discover it, as he instantly did, asking 
who the young lady might be. 

So exhaustively was La Fayette's triumphal procession 
reported, it is hard to find a new item, even in the memory 
of those who shed tears, as everybody is reported to have 
done, upon seeing him. But nowhere is mention made of 
the General's poodle dog, which shared his master's honors ; 
so let it not be forgotten of William A. Wells, who lived on 
Lancaster Street, that to him was the care of the pet in- 
trusted during the sojourn in Rochester. 

BASE BALL. 

Thurlow Weed tells of the base ball playing of those 
days, when the club of nearly fifty members met on Mum- 
ford's meadow every afternoon in the season, just below the 
Falls. It requires not a little exercise of the imagination 
for some of us to think of Addison Gardner, Frederic Whit- 
tlesey, Samuel L. Seldon, Thomas Kempshall, James K. 
Livingston, Dr. George Marvin, Dr. F. F. Backus, Dr. A. 



138 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

G. Smith, and Thurlow Weed, as shouting " Go home ! Go 
home ! Back up second I'' etc., etc., vociferously at each other, 
their coats and waistcoats in a pile on the grass, their 
friends cheering lustily at a luckless tumble or successful 
home run. 

THE MORGAN AFFAIR. 
September, 1S26. 

This was the first of many agitating movements concen- 
trating the gaze of the country, if not of the whole civilized 
world, upon Rochester. 

William Morgan, a free and accepted Mason, who dis- 
appeared simultaneously with the publication of his book 
exposing the first three degrees of Masonry, was a resident 
of Batavia in 1826, the year of his abduction from Canan- 
daigua, whither he had been summoned on a charge of petty 
larceny trumped up for the occasion. As two or more of 
his immediate abductors were Rochester men, and "the 
mysterious carriage " conveying him from Rochester to 
Lewiston was Rochester property, — while Rochester, di- 
rectly after his removal from Canandaigua, became the cen- 
tre of what was called "the infected district," our Masons 
and anti-Masons being the foremost men in the subsequent 
trials and investigations, our press the organs of both par- 
ties, — this subject has a place in our history. William Mor- 
gan had lived here one or two years before moving to Le 
Roy, where it is said he was disappointed and embittered 
in not getting the work he sought on the building of a Ma- 
sonic Lodge. He had been one of the workmen on our 
aqueduct. He wrote his notorious book in Rochester, and 
the " Daily Telegraph" had been cautiously approached 
for the publication of the same. The later editions were 
printed here. It is said that upon Rochester Masons was 
thrown the responsibility of disposing of him at last. Many 
of the leading Masons and anti-Masons investigating the 
mysterious affair and imj^licated in it were our leading 
citizens, and the effects of the excitement did not disap- 
pear from our political, social, and religious life for many 
years, if it may be said that they are yet eradicated. Bit- 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 139 

ter and intense animosities were engendered, outlastino- 
the grief of Morgan's personal friends for his loss. A new 
and powerful element was introduced into political strife. 
Masonry, in this part of the country at least, was well-nigh 
annihilated. The lodge founded in Rochesterville as early 
as 1 8 17, and the installation of the Monroe Encampment in 
July, 1826, in St. Luke's Church, notwithstanding the influ- 
ence of its Sir Knights and the promising foundation of 
that first regular conclave, could not stand the tide settino- 
in against Masonry with "the Morgan affair;" and, "rather 
than intensify the passions of their fellow -citizens, the 
fratrcs discussed the subject of returning their charter and 
disbanding" as early as February, 1829, which they did, 
"and for eighteen years," says their historian, "this chiv- 
alric body slumbered quietly. This wicked institution was 
under the ban of wily politicians for several years, but a 
more auspicious day enabled the surviving members to seek 
a return of their authority in conferring the order of 
knighthood in this flourishing city." But as late as 1838, 
at the time of the writing of Henry O'Reilly's history, it 
therein was recorded : " Masonic institutions have ceased 
to exist in Rochester, or the surrounding country," and all 
because of measures taken to suppress a book which, if left 
unnoticed, would have proved but another failure in its au- 
thor's unsuccessful life, or even if read would have given 
little reliable knowledge to those possessed with a craving 
to know the secrets of Masonry without joining the order. 
The book itself was almost lost sight of in the political 
whirlpool that followed the abduction ; for in the horror of 
Free Masonry which resulted in the utter failure of the law 
to bring the criminals to justice, to secure witnesses, or to 
find a trace of the missing man, reparation was sought in 
the ballot. No man belonging to the order of Masons 
should hold public office, and upon that issue anti-Masons 
and reformed Masons were called upon to vote. The in- 
tense anti-mason feeling became a powerful lever in the 
hands of designing politicians. No crime was too black 
•to be charged to the order, and only for the division in the 



140 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

anti-masonic faction, it had carried things with a high 
hand. 

A considerable portion of the first volume of Thurlow 
Weed's autobiography is devoted to a detailed account of 
the Morgan affair. He was the foremost leader of the 
radical anti-masonic party. All we shall ever know of the 
fate of Morgan is told by him. That he was murdered, 
drowned in the Niagara River, at the instigation of a few 
fanatical zealots of the order, who knew no other way out 
of their difficulty, there is no room for doubt. But we may 
reasonably deny, from the evidence advanced, that the ab- 
duction and murder of Morgan were the result of the true 
teachings of the brotherhood, or that Masons generally 
were acquainted with what was taking place. The course 
of De Witt Clinton is an illustration of the views of every 
good Mason at the time. De Witt Clinton, like Washing- 
ton, Franklin, La Fayette, and Jackson, was a Free and Ac- 
cepted Mason, and it can never be said of him that he left 
a stone unturned in his efforts to bring the criminals to 
justice. No one was louder in demand for investigation 
than the older Masons. The young men led what was 
called the conspiracy, defended their order by affirming — 
what gained credence with many — that Morgan was in hid- 
ing, or in duress in Canada, and that the agitation was a 
clever device for selling the book. Surely a book never 
had a better chance for making its mark, but who of us 
to - day is any the wiser for its publication } The petty 
persecution of the author culminated in a mighty crusade 
against Masonry ; and Morgan, cruelly, uselessly murdered 
as he was, died rather for publishing a foolish book in hope 
of pecuniary gain, than for the defense of high principle or 
exposure of wTong. Had his book — granting truth in its 
revelations which his abduction confirmed in many minds 
— unearthed anything more harmful than the brief expos- 
ure of " the poor blind candidates " at initiation, the secret 
grip, and what seems to the unsophisticated a careless 
mode of salutation with a twenty inch gauge, a square, and 
a common gavel when the third degree is sought for, we 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. , ., 

would have been less at loss to explain to his credit the 
breaking of the terrible oath which he gives to the world 
wuh all the rest. The secrets he attem.ned to betray we e 
those initiatory rites of the first three degrees, and the 
secret signs without which no one can enter a Masonic 
Lodge. His description of those necessary means of de- 
fense against imposture would prove about as helpful to 
he uninitiated invader as would the directions for tmlock- 
ing a bank safe for the interpretation of unfulfilled proph- 
ecy. One has only to practice giving the grip according to 
his explanation, to see the folly of the whole revelation 

He was well known here in Rochester, where he had 
many warm friends. He was fifty years old at the time of 

httle chln'^^'S ' rr "'"' "'* " >'°""S wife and two 
little chi dren. He had quarreled with the Masons in Le 
Roy, and moved to Batavia with the resentful determina- 
tion of exposing the secrets of the order. The book was 
written here, just when is uncertain, but those who care 
to know the precise locality where this one of our many 
dragon s teeth was sown, will perhaps contemplate with in- 
vest hereafter ,55 West Main Street, a little east of St 

V^r% ^°T ' """^ °''"P'"' •'y "■ "• Woodward, who 
tells of finding a secret closet when recently making re- 
pairs. His portrait gives us an amiable, scholarly face? but 
there ,s an unmistakable weakness about the chin, that the 
high philosophical forehead and the spectacles p ished up 

ThTnifflrrT".'' "'.'T ™"""' '^'^ '" -' -"'-'i 
Ih, uT '■'"""''' "' °f '^^ fi<^'i'i°"^ 'Charge upon 

which he was arrested. He had borrowed such a garment 

a a feeWe 'fl ^-^"^""^''"^ -'' f-'«' '» -'-n it. He wa 
as a feeble fly ,„ a strong web. He had written and was 
publishing the secrets of Masonry in violation of his oath 
The brotherhood had in vain pleaded with him to give up 

them"™:crr'' t^' r^ ''^'" '--^y ™-- '° ^-^roy 
them , and when he disappeared and the country was on 

fire what wonder that many were firm in believing that he 
had made a good bargain with the Masons, and would have 
an easier time in providing for his little family on his far 
northern farm in Canada .' 



142 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

In an editorial in the " Commercial Advertiser " on the 
Morgan Atfair we find the following : — 

"The Masons were, at this time, divided into four classes. 
First, there were the guilty Masons and their immediate 
confidants, if not allies. Second, the thorough-going Ma- 
sons, who, if not actually guilty, were rather disposed to 
think that the actors had served the traitor right. Third, 
retired Masons, who had resumed their aprons in conse- 
quence of the spirit of persecution that had gone abroad, 
and who, conscious of their own innocence, felt bound to 
resist the intolerant spirit of anti-masonry. Fourth, a 
much larger body of Masons than either of the preceding, 
having virtually retired from the institution, were now mere 
passives, condemning the outrages as far as they believed 
them true, but doubting, nevertheless, whether any sub- 
stantial cause existed for their excitement." 

To this statement Thurlow Weed has added : " There 
were at that moment two classes of anti-Masons : first, 
those who believed that the outrages perpetrated upon 
Morgan had the sanction of the lodges, chapters, and en- 
campments ; second, those who believed that the outrages 
which had been committed by zealous and misguided mem- 
bers of the order had only the sanction of Masons kindred 
in character and spirit. This second or latter class now 
looked for some emphatic and decisive action on the part 
of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter in condemnation of the 
outrage upon Morgan, in asserting its own innocence, and 
in vindication of its character." At the next session of the 
Grand Chapter (1827) the committee to which the Morgan 
matter was referred reported the following resolution, which 
was adopted : — 

" Resolved, By this Grand Chapter, that we its members, 
individually and as a body, do disclaim all knowledge or 
approbation of the proceedings in relation to the abduction 
of the said William Morgan. 

" And that we disapprove of the same as a violation of 
the majesty of the laws, and an infringement of the rights 
of personal liberty secured to every citizen of our free and 
happy Republic." 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 143 

The Monroe County Morgan Committee, organized for 
the investigation of the mystery, had its head centre here 
of course, and although Masons were at first considered 
ehgible, they finally withdrew, and perhaps the most con- 
spicuous men of the time were the vigilant, unwearied 
members of that committee, working in unison with com- 
mittees of neighboring counties and towns. We find upon 
Mr. Weed's list of the members, Samuel Works, Harvey 
Ely, Frederick F. Backus, and Frederic Whittlesey. In 
a memorial sent to the legislature, praying that an addi- 
tional and larger reward should be offered for the appre- 
hension and conviction of persons engaged in the abduction 
and probable murder of Morgan, and for the appointment 
of a special commissioner to conduct the prosecutions, 
the following names composed the Rochester committee : 
Josiah Bissell, Jr., Frederick F. Backus, Samuel Works, 
Frederic Whittlesey, Thurlow Weed, E. S. Beach. 

Two Rochester men, Burrage Smith and John Whitney, 
gained a most unenviable notoriety from their intimate 
association with Morgan's abduction and disappearance. 
Their connection with the mysterious carriage, the property 
of a Rochester man, Ezra Piatt, a Royal Arch Mason, could 
not be doubted. They disappeared the February after the 
abduction, and it was subsequently learned that they fled 
to New Orleans, where Smith died. Whitney returned to 
Rochester in 1829, when he was tried upon an indictment 
found in his absence, and sentenced to imprisonment in the 
county jail for one year and three months. Colonel Wil- 
liam L. Stone, who wrote an impartial account of the affair 
in 1832, in a letter to John Quincy Adams, sums up John 
Whitney's testimony, in the trial of Parkhurst, Whitney, 
and others, as follows, John Whitney having admitted that 
he was with Morgan in the carriage on that eventful jour- 
ney : " There was no scuffle, nor was any force used. . . . 
Morgan expressed a willingness to go if his situation could 
be made to suit him, and he was assured it should be so. 
The object in keeping him secret was that Miller and those 
with whom he had been engaged in printing the book 



144 ROCHESTER: A STORY IITSTORTCAL. 

should not know where he had gone, so as to follow him ; 
he said Miller had misused him, and he did not wish him 
to know where he had gone ; appeared anxious as any one 
to keep his journey secret ; witness s*aw no bandage over 
his eyes ; no threats were used ; Morgan was told he could 
not expect friends unless he used his friends well ; he 
said he had done wrong and was willing to get out of the 
scrape ; he knew they were going to Lewiston ; it was the 
understanding that the arrangements to be made for him 
were to be as good in a pecuniary point of view as the spec- 
ulation of Miller in publishing the book ; nothing definite, 
however, had yet been agreed upon." 

" The conspiracy," writes Thurlovv Weed, who, it must 
be admitted, had as thorough a knowledge of the case as 
any one, " rising from Morgan's arrest for debt to his re- 
arrest for larceny, had no purpose beyond securing his sep- 
aration for a year or two from his Batavia associates. Nor 
did the idea of taking his life occur to the most reckless 
until the refusal of the Masons in Canada to receive and 
send him to the Far West Fur Company, as was expected, 
threw him back on their hands. Morgan had now been 
confined for several days in the unoccupied magazine of 
Fort Niagara. He was becoming noisy, violent, and trouble- 
some. The Lewiston Masons sent a messenger to Roches- 
ter to inform the persons who brought Morgan there that 
they must take the responsibility of disposing of him. The 
subject was anxiously discussed in the chapter at Roches- 
ter. Who, besides Whitney, went, in consequence of this 
message, to Niagara is not known." 

This statement is confirmed by a confession made by 
John Whitney in 1831 to Thurlow Weed, to whom he after- 
wards promised to make a written statement of the affair to 
be sealed up for future use. John Whitney died before this 
written statement was made, but in the detailed report of 
the conversation to be found in Thurlow Weed's autobiog- 
raphy, he is reported to have said in the presence of Colo- 
nel Simeon B. Jewett, of Clarkson, and Major Samuel Bar- 
ton, of Lewiston, and Mr. Weed : " When our friends in 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. I45 

Canada refused to take care of Morgan, the Lewiston peo- 
ple sent word to Rochester that he could not be kept much 
longer in the fort, and that we must come to Lewiston 
immediately. . . . Simultaneously, the installment of an en- 
campment of Knights Templar drew together, at Lewiston, 
a large number of friends, of many of whom the question of 
what was to be done with Morgan was asked. But the 
matter was so perplexing that no one seemed willing to act 
or advise. In the evening, however, after we had been 
called 'from labor to refreshment,' Colonel William King 
asked me to step into another room, where I found Mr. 
Howard, of Buffalo, Mr. Chubbuck, of Lewiston, and Mr. 
Garside, of Youngstown. Colonel King said there was a 
carriage at the door ready to take us to the fort, into which 
we stepped and were driven hastily away. As we pro- 
ceeded, Colonel King said that he had received instruction 
from the highest authority to deal with Morgan according 
to his deserts, and that, having confidence in their courage 
and fidelity, he had chosen them as his assistants. On reach- 
ing the magazine, they informed Morgan that the arrange- 
ments had been completed for his removal to the interior of 
Canada, where he would be settled on a farm, and that his 
family would follow him, in accordance with the assurance 
previously given him by Johns. With this assurance, he 
walked with them from the fort, where a row-boat awaited 
them. The boat was rowed in a diagonal direction to the 
place where the Niagara River is lost in Lake Ontario. 
Here, either shore being two miles distant, a rope was 
wound several times around Morgan's body, at either end of 
which a large weight was attached. Up to that time, Mor- 
gan had conversed with them about his new home and the 
probability of being joined by his family ; but when he saw 
the rope and the use to be made of it, he struggled desper- 
ately, and held firmly with one hand to the gunwale of the 
boat. Garside detached it, but as he did so Morgan caught 
Garside's thumb in his mouth and bit off the first joint." 

The mystery of the Morgan affair to us of to-day. Masons 
or non-Masons, is not what became of Morgan, but that 
10 



146 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

this little book of his should have so incensed even a small 
faction of the Order that they could approve of his ab- 
duction. 

Those familiar with masonic literature are aware that the 
publications of the fraternity tell more concerning the ori- 
gin and objects of Masonry than this betrayal of a sworn 
member. They give us, beside, an abundance of illustra- 
tions of the symbols of the mysteries. One may rise up 
from a perusal of "The General Ahiman Rezon and Free 
Mason's Guide, by Daniel Sickles, 33°" with a clearer in- 
sight into the symbolism of the order, and the rites of the 
ancient craftsmen, than a study of Morgan's Exposure of 
Masonry can ever afford. Copies of the first edition of 
Morgan's book are not easily found. There is still a con- 
viction in the popular mind that the Masonic Order is in 
league to destroy every copy, and that this has been their 
mission since 1826. 

Our churches suffered severely during the excitement. 
There were saints who could not commune with Masons, 
or have a Mason in the pulpit of the church they attended. 
The beloved rector of St. Luke's for eight years, a Mason 
of high standing, was so unfortunately associated with Ma- 
sonry his resignation was inevitable. The old First Church 
was torn with dissensions between its members. Henry 
O'Reilly and Thurlow Weed, the foremost leaders of the 
local factions of " the infected district," represented more 
intense partisanship than that existing between Mason and 
anti-Mason. Henry O'Reilly was the brilliant editor of the 
"Advertiser" and a Jacksonian, but not a Mason. Thur- 
low Weed's "Anti-Masonic Enquirer" was devoted to the 
Adams' party. 

There was a fanning of the faint embers of the old flames 
when the monument to the memory of William Morgan 
was erected in 1882 in the cemetery at Batavia. This mon- 
ument is of granite and about sixty feet in height. The 
block upon which the inscriptions are chiseled is four feet 
square and nearly six feet high, and the faces containing 
the inscriptions are polished. Its columnar shaft is sur- 




HENRY O'REILLY. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 147 

mounted by the statue of a man represented as making an 
address. The inscriptions are as follows : — 

[South Side.] 
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF 

WM. MORGAN. 

A NATIVE OF VIRGINIA, A CAPTAIN IN THE WAR OF l8l2. A 
RESPECTABLE CITIZEN OF BATAVIA AND A MARTYR TO THE 
FREEDOM OF WRITING, PRINTING, AND SPEAKING THE 
TRUTH HE WAS ABDUCTED FROM NEAR THIS SPOT IN THE 
YEAR 1826, BY FREE MASONS, AND MURDERED FOR REVEAL- 
ING THE SECRETS OF THEIR ORDER. 

MORGAN. 

[West Side.] 

THE BANE OF OUR CIVIL INSTITUTIONS IS TO BE FOUND IN 
MASONRY ALREADY POWERFUL AND DAILY BECOMING MORE 
SO. I OWE TO MY COUNTRY AN EXPOSURE OF ITS DANGERS. 
— CAPT. WM. MORGAN. 

[ East Side. ] 

ERECTED BY VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTIONS FROM OVER 2000 
PERSONS RESIDING IN CANADA, ONTARIO, AND TWENTY-SIX 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND TERRITORIES. 

[North Side.] 

THE COURT RECORDS OF GENESEE COUNTY AND FILES OF THE 
BATAVIA ADVOCATE KEPT IN THE RECORDER'S OFFICE CON- 
TAIN THE HISTORY OF THE EVENTS THAT CAUSED THE 
ERECTION OF THIS MONUMENT. 

I cannot refrain from republishing in this connection a 
tribute to John Whitney, found in the columns of the 
"Craftsman," the masonic organ, for June, 1829, after his 
sentence for imprisonment : — 

" Of the character of John Whitney through his career of 
life thus far it is almost irrelevant to speak, for the voice of 
community, the unwilling testimony even of those who, for 
purposes best known to themselves, have seen fit to perse- 
cute him, is lifted up in his praise. He was the useful citi- 
zen, the kind neighbor, the generous friend, the industrious 
mechanic, the faithful husband, and the fond father." 

John Whitney died in Chicago in the summer of 1869, 
forty-three years after the abduction of William Morgan. 
Who shall say that each was not equally the martyr of fanat- 



148 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

icism and self-misled at the outset ? Inhere are not lack- 
ing among us those who can see in the joyless life of John 
Whitney after that fatal September night as much to com- 
miserate, even to honor, as in that of the murdered man, 
whose mental suffering, though terrible, was not pro- 
longed. 

THE " GOOD ENOUGH MORGAN " AFFAIR. 

If the Morgan affair of 1826 gave Rochester unenviable 
notoriety, that of the " Good Enough Morgan " affair of 1827 
intensified the interest of the whole country in several of 
our political leaders and the warfare they waged in our 
journalism and courts. The names of men high in office 
and social standing almost disappeared for a while in op- 
probrious epithets : " Masons Jacks," " Mingoes," " whis- 
ker pullers," " kidnappers," etc. 

There are two versions of the story in which so much 
undying bitterness originated. Thurlow Weed's "Autobi- 
ography " gives one, Henry Brown's " History of Political 
Anti-Masonry," another. The last mentioned book was pub- 
lished in 1829, its writer, a lawyer of Batavia, Western New 
York, and copies may be found in the New York Mercantile 
and Astor libraries. 

The impartial reader of the two conflicting accounts has 
at least the following facts from which to draw conclu- 
sions : — 

Morgan had disappeared. The Masons, as a body, were 
charged with his murder. But there was no proof that he 
was dead. Many believed he was in hiding. Thurlow Weed, 
the animating spirit of American political anti- Masonry 
at the time, and one of the Rochester Committee seeking 
the apprehension and conviction of those concerned in the 
Morgan abduction, read in the Orleans "Whig" one day 
(i2th of October, 1827) what caught his vigilant eye at 
once. The body of an unknown man had been found on 
the lake shore near the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek. The 
description given by the coroner led Mr. Weed to think it 
might be the body of William Morgan, who, he believed, 
had been drowned in the Niagara River more than a year 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 49 

before. " Teeth sound, except two missing on the lower 
jaw ; a set of what is generally termed double teeth in 
front," was the particular item leading him to start at once 
with several friends for Oak Orchard Creek, as Morgan's 
teeth were known to be double, and his size corresponding 
to that of the body described. He sent to Batavia request- 
ing those who would be most likely to determine if it was 
Morgan's body or not to aid him in his investigation on an 
appointed day. " In passing through the villages on my 
vi^ay," he says, " I gave notice of the contemplated investi- 
gation, and invited citizens generally to be present." Mrs. 
Morgan's attendance was also secured, with two teeth of 
her husband which she had preserved — an unusual preser- 
vation, we must all admit. 

At the first inquest some one had said, " Perhaps this is 
Morgan," but a Mr. Potter, who found the corpse, replied 
at once such could not be the case, as the body had whis- 
kers and was not bald, and every one who had ever seen 
Morgan remembered his bald head and smooth face. That 
ended the matter for the nonce. The man was buried, but 
his clothing was kept by the coroner, in case some one 
should try to identify him. 

The second inquest was instigated by Mr. Weed. A 
statement published in the Rochester "Advertiser " shortly 
afterwards, representing that he caused the corpse to be 
disinterred on a Saturday and left in the charge of " three 
trusty men to guard it against the Masons " until the Mon- 
day following, and that the hair and whiskers disappeared 
in that time, etc., was the cause of the indictment brought 
against the pubHsher and editor of the " Advertiser," and 
which was withdrawn without trial at last, after hanging 
over their heads twelve years, although they never made 
retraction. 

To this second inquest the coroner summoned twenty- 
five intelligent citizens, all residents of the town of Carle- 
ton. " Before the body was exhumed," says Mr. Weed, 
" Mrs. Morgan, Dr. Strong, Mr. Fitch, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Dyer, 
etc., were called upon to give in detail their recollection of 



I50 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

i^Q personnel TyViA of any peculiarities by which it might be 
identified. . . . The face was so discolored and distorted 
that no feature of it was distinguishable." The two teeth 
were found to slide into their cavities satisfactorily, and 
there was a convincing scar on one of the great toes. The 
end of the inquest was, Mrs. Morgan declared the body 
to be that of her husband, William Morgan, and attended 
the public funeral at Batavia dressed in deep mourning, 
when a funeral discourse was delivered by one James Coch- 
ran. The report of the Rochester Committee attending 
the inquest closed as follows : " For ourselves, we do con- 
ceive that the body discovered on the shore of Lake Ontario 
has been identified as the body of Captain WiUiam Morgan 
beyond the shadow of a doubt. In this discovery we can- 
not but trace the hand of an overruling Providence, who, 
when all human efforts were found too weak effectually to 
penetrate the mysterious secret, has chosen his own time, 
and by his own means to throw a broad light upon this dark 
mystery. This induces us to rely with a stronger hope 
upon the same Providence to unravel the remainder of this 
entangled skein, and to provide means for bringing all the 
perpetrators of a daring outrage to merited punishment. 
(Signed) Samuel Works, 

Harvey Ely, 
Frederick F. Backus, 
Frederic Whittlesey, 
Thurlow Weed." 

" ' Morgan is found ! '" I quote from Brown's " History of 
Political Anti- Masonry." '"Morgan is found,' was the 
theme of every tongue. Heaven had laid bare its out- 
stretched arm to avenge his death, and that not upon the 
guilty perpetrators only, but the whole fraternity. The 
already excited town received a new impulse, and future 
triumphs were rung in every ear. The cry of vengeance 
was wafted on every breeze, and mingled with every echo 
returning from the lake, where Morgan's ghost, it was 
said, performed its nightly rounds." Surely a political 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 151 

party never saw the fall election drawing near with more 
confidence of sweeping success than did the anti-Masons 
that October when they buried their supposed Morgan. 
There was outspoken dissatisfaction with this second in- 
quest, but Mrs. Morgan's recognition went a long way with 
the multitude. Said the " Daily Advertiser," in one of 
its editorials, " The more we hear and see, the more thor- 
oughly satisfied are we that there was foul play some way 
or other connected with the second inquest over the body 
recently found. It is utterly unreconcilable with our no- 
tions of right in such cases that anything tending to throw 
light on a judicial investigation should have been withheld 
or smothered by those assisting at it ; but that something 
similar to this has been the case is susceptible of positive 
proof." ..." Certainly it was an extraordinary discovery, 
bordering on the miraculous," said Colonel Pratt, " that a 
human body, floating about in Lake Ontario for a year, 
food for fishes and undergoing decomposition, should be 
found with head and hair complete." 

It is to Henry Brown's History, and to Henry O'Reilly's 
"Good Enough Morgan," published 1880, that we must 
turn for a fuller insight into the third inquest than Mr. 
Weed vouchsafes. 

The anti-Masons were on the high tide of political suc- 
cess, " when a voice from Canada," says Henry Brown, 
" dispelled the general joy — a still small voice — the voice 
of a widow and her fatherless children claiming the remains 
of their dead. Their pretensions for a while were treated 
with levity, and they were even insulted and abused." 

The story that speedily came out was as follows : — 

One Timothy Monro, of the township of Clark, Upper 
Canada, in company with his friend, John Cron, had visited 
Newark on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, oppo- 
site Fort Niagara, September 26, 1827. While awaiting 
the sale of his cargo, he, with his shipmate, John Cron, 
crossed the river in a small boat. Returning, the skiff cap- 
sized near the place where Morgan was said to have been 
murdered, and Timothy, Monro was drowned, notwithstand- 
ing the efforts of John Cron to save his life. 



152 JWCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

When Mrs. Monro saw the notice of the body found at 
Oak Orchard Creek, she started for Batavia at once, with 
her son and John Cron, to satisfy herself of its identity. 
One account is that messengers were dispatched from this 
locality to bring her here. Her appearance on the scene 
was naturally exciting, and a large representation of Roches- 
ter men attended the third inquest. The Morgan Commit- 
tee, it is said, declined to lend their presence, but the oppo- 
site faction, headed by Ebenezer Griffin, Henry O'Reilly, 
Jacob Gould, Robert H. Stevens, etc., were unsparing in 
their efforts to secure a thorough investigation. 

Just before this third inquest took place, and when the 
public ear was quick to catch each item concerning the 
new phase of the matter, and fanatics and demagogues 
were magnifying every circumstance that could further the 
interests of their party, Mr. Weed uttered the memorable 
words, whose exact rendering we may possibly never know, 
but which went over the country like wild-fire. 

His own version of the affair, given to the New York 
" Graphic," is as follows : — 

"When this last inquest was pending, the lawyer, Ebene- 
zer Griffin, father-in-law of Judge E. Darwin Smith, and en- 
gaged by the Masons, said to me one day, ' What are you 
going to do for a Morgan now .■' ' * This man is a good 
enough Morgan,' I retorted, ' till you produce the man that 
was killed.' He went off and reported that I said the de- 
ceased was 7i good ejiough Morgan until after election. This 
lie was first published by Henry O'Reilly, editor of the 
Rochester " Daily Advertiser," and it made such an excite- 
ment that he stuck to it and elaborated it. Finally, the lie 
took this form — that I pulled out the beard, cut the hair, 
and otherwise defaced or mutilated the features of the On- 
tario corpse so as to make them resemble Morgan. ... I 
was abhorred by tens of thousands. Old acquaintances cut 
mc. I was pointed at on the street. Friends gave me the 
cold shoulder. I received threatening anonymous letters. 
I was a marked man." 

The following affidavit appeared in the "Daily Adver- 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 153 

tiser," and in the form of handbills, and was circulated at 
the polls throughout the county the following Novem- 
ber : — 

" William C. Greene, being duly sworn, deposeth and says 
that he, the said Greene, with others, did attend the poll of 
election held at Harvard's, in the town of Gates, in the 
County of Monroe, and that there Mr. Thurlow Weed did 
say that he, the said Thurlow, did pull the whiskers from 
the face of the body found at Orchard Creek, and that John 
Marchant did shave the same, he, the said Thurlow, being 
one of the Morgan Committee. 

"William C. Greene. 

"Subscribed and sworn this 6th day of November, 1827, 

before me. ,, 

" Samuel Miller, J. P. 

The third inquest of the body at Batavia followed Mrs. 
Monro's and John Cron's examination at Gaines, where 
the clothing had been preserved. Mrs. Monro's descrip- 
tion of the clothing worn by her husband when he left 
home, and confirmed by John Cron, was surprisingly mi- 
nute and exact, even to the yarn in the darning of the 
socks, and the mending of the pantaloons. This of course 
was before she had seen the clothing in the coroner's keep- 
ing. That it was that of Timothy Monro was believed even 
by those who still persisted that the body must be Morgan's, 
although when the body was produced at Batavia, before 
an intelligent and impartial jury, upon which there were 
more anti-Masons than Masons, the decision of the second 
inquest was adjudged false. The face had changed beyond 
recognition, but it was a bald, whiskerless corpse, accord- 
ing to Brown's and O'Reilly's version, while Mr. Weed's is 
as follows : " Monro had a heavy black beard and coarse 
black hair, while the beard of the body found was grayish, 
and the hair long, soft, and of a chestnut color ... so that 
while the clothes were minutely and accurately described 
by Mrs. Monro, the body sworn to by her and her son was 
not the body upon which the clothes were found ; " to which 



154 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the opposition naturally retorted, " they would ask us to be- 
lieve that William Morgan's body, which they say was sunk 
with weights and bound by a cable tow in Niagara River, 
thirteen months ago and more, had somehow managed to 
get inside of Timothy Monro's clothing." 

Jonathan Hurlburt, Coroner, impaneled the following 
jury : Guy Carlton Towner, Osburn Filer, Alva Smith, 
Heman Pomeroy, Jr., Joseph Furman, Charles C. Church, 
Truman Hurlburt, Hall S. Gregory, Cornelius L. Sweet, 
Daniel P. Adams, William H. Webster, Abraham Van 
Tuyl, John Thorp, Jr., William Blossom, Elisha Parmelce, 
William H. Wells, Burnham Gilbert, John Waldo, Benja- 
min Henshaw, Ebenezer Pomeroy, Lemuel Holden, Ezekiel 
Betts, Oswald Williams, Nicholas Sagenddorph, who re- 
turned a verdict that "the said body is that of Timothy 
Monro, and they do say upon their oaths as aforesaid, that 
the same Timothy Monro came to his death by drowning 
. . . the 26th day of September, 1827." 

A paper signed by Ebenezer Griffin, James F. Mason, 
and Jacob Gould, was widely circulated, giving an account 
of the inquest, the verdict of the jury, and their agreement 
with the same. 

And yet there are those to-day who seem unshaken in 
their conviction that the body in the Batavia cemetery, upon 
which three inquests were held, is that of William Morgan, 

The importance of the decision of that third inquest can 
hardly be estimated. It changed and purified the political 
atmosphere. The second decision had placed at least fifty 
under the suspicion of murder, because of the charge of 
their connection with Morgan's disappearance. With Mor- 
gan proved to have been drowned, indictments for his ab- 
duction would have been indictments for murder. 

Mrs. Morgan married not long after the third inquest. 

THE ARCADE. 

Rochester without the Arcade, even now that the city is 
sometimes called a suburb of Powers Block, would be very 
like Europe without the Mediterranean, Venice without 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 



155 



canals, and Pisa without its tower. The Arcade is the 
channel through which all the converging streams of our 
municipal life flow in a steady, quiet stream. It stamped 
our individuality when we were hardly expected to have 
individuality ; it characterized us, and that creditably, when 
Carthage Bridge was unforgotten. 

We, whose memories recall the day when it was our pride 
and the wonder of the stranger within our gates, watch 
every change in its structure with tardy approval, for it is 
preeminently the monument of the enterprise and seership 
of early Rochester, and the birthplace of much that has 
shaped our destiny. 




The Old Arcade. 



Far more of the first things in our annals date from the 
old Arcade than from any other locality. Rochester has 
been called " the great place for starting things." The ap- 
pellation is not misapplied, and the association of many of 
our movements with the Arcade we leave to those who 
would pursue the subject more exhaustively. That little 
saddler's shop on the west side of the river was the nucleus 
of much of our prosperity. There is an item in the simple 
autobiography of that poor saddler that has place here, for 



156 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

it tells US how the pioneer of 1812 was enabled, in 1828, to 
build on the site of his first home in Rochester the largest 
and most expensive building in the United States west of 
Albany, and the finest in the State outside of New York 
city, a far greater venture for the owner, and a more ex- 
ceeding joy for the people, than was ever the magnificent 
building on the Four Corners, which has naturally given the 
Arcade the place of a venerated antiquity. The extract 
from the autobiography takes us back to the troublous 
times of the War of 18 12, when the little settlement was 
suffering from fear of an invasion by the British. 

"During the summer and fall of 1813 the basement 
story of the large house was finished and some of the rooms 
above, and we moved into it, and rented the one we left to 
Elisha Ely. Captain Isaac Stone " (the east side tavern 
keeper) " having been authorized to enlist a company of 
volunteer cavalry for six months as General Peter B. Por- 
ter's volunteers, Harvey Ely and I contracted to equip 
them, he to furnish the clothing and I the saddlery, to be 
paid for when they received the money from government 
for their services. As soon as my health became suffi- 
ciently restored, I began the work." 

The saddlery was paid for in good time and the war was 
over. The nest Qg^ was prudently invested in the first tav- 
ern on the west side, the house where General Scott and 
his staff were entertained on their way home from the fron- 
tier, and where Mortimer F. Reynolds was born. George 
Frauenberger is the historian of the Arcade, and I cannot 
do better than quote from the interesting leaflet he has 
issued, " History of Reynolds' Arcade, 1828 to 1880." In 
speaking of our first west side tavern, he says : — 

" It was there that the first justice's court was held ; the 
first physician practiced the healing art ; the first lawyer 
expounded to a gaping crowd the principles of legal lore ; 
the first school opened (taught by a lady who continued to 
reside in the city until her death in* 874, and two or more 
of her pupils still reside here) ; the first religious meetings 
were held ; the first newspaper published ; the first masonic 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 57 

lodge ; the first tailor's shop ; the first saddler's shop, and 
the first restaurant established. 

" In Spafford's ' Gazetteer ' of the State of New York, 
published in 1824, is the following descriptive paragraph: 
* Rochester — post village or borough — capital of Monroe 
County. It is incorporated and ought to be called a Post 
Borough,' Although in the four years between 1824 and 
1828 the business and population had materially increased, 
it required considerable enterprise and courage to erect a 
building of the cost and dimensions of the Arcade at that 
early day. Confident as the builder was in his hopes and 
anticipations of the future Rochester, he could hardly have 
conceived the wondrous change that has occurred in the 
frontier village, proud of its then 8,000 residents, to the 
great city of to-day boasting of its 100,000 inhabitants. 

"The completion of the Arcade marked an epoch in our 
early history as the centre of business and population. It 
was the largest and most expensive building in the United 
States west of Albany, and the finest in the State outside 
New York city. Here the Athenaeum was started, and an 
auditorium furnished expressly for its uses, in which was 
inaugurated the first mayor elect of the city of Rochester ; 
here the first strictly religious newspaper, the ' Observer,' 
was published ; here was published the ' Craftsman,' a ma- 
sonic journal ; and here was painted the first portrait, the 
first daguerreotype, the first lithographs, the first wood and 
steel engravings ; here the first sculptor of the city (and 
perhaps of the country) has wrought on marble the faces 
and figures of some of our eminent citizens ; here the late 
lamented Wm. A. Reynolds opened the first seed -store, 
and in connection with M. B. Bateham commenced the 
nursery and green-house business, from which has grown 
the extensive seed-house of Hiram Sibley & Co., and the 
gigantic nursery establishment of Ellwanger & Barry, to 
whom he transferred the business. Here for fifty years 
have the people of this vicinity come to deposit and receive 
their mail matter, and who can tell how much of hope and 
disappointment, of joy and sorrow, the little missives have 



158 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

conveyed. Here was the electric telegraph office opened 
soon after the completion of the first line west of Albany ; 
here have merchants, mechanics, artists, printers, lawyers, 
doctors, surveyors, architects, dentists, and hosts of busi- 
ness men pursued their various callings and practiced their 
professions ; here has justice been administered, the nup- 
tial tics been sealed, and perchance prematurely severed ; 
the naked clothed ; the hungry fed ; the thirsty had their 
thirst assauged : the poor had the gospel preached, and 
some, alas ! life's fitful fever o'er, have been summoned 
from the scenes of this busy whirl of commerce to join the 
multitude who people the silent abode of the city of the 
dead. 

" When first erected, the Arcade did not extend through 
to what is now Exchange Place, but what was then known 
as Bugle Alley. It was subsequently extended northerly 
and easterly to meet the requirements of the business 
which has centred in and around it, and, as far as practi- 
cable, to keep pace with the increase and growth of popu- 
lation and business, and the improvements and taste in 
architectural structures, the natural concomitants and out- 
growth of a larger and wealthier population. The old- 
fashioned style of architecture, with high narrow windows, 
that formed the original store fronts, has given way to 
broad sheets of French and American Plate Glass ; and the 
old wooden arch, with its small lights of window glass, has 
been replaced by the massive iron rafters and immense 
plates of rough glass weighing fully seventy tons. The 
upper rooms of the building being fitted up for artists' 
studios, they have for more than two generations past been 
occupied by artists in the various departments of art." 

The story of the many artists who have had their studios 
in that upper floor of the Arcade, — their successes, fail- 
ures, windfalls, and mishaps, — would make an interesting 
volume of itself, and one of no small size. D. ]\I. Dewey, 
who has been a tenant of the Arcade since 1844, seem- 
ing to many of us as much a part of it as the gallery and 
skylight, has, as a dealer in works of rare excellence, and 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. j ^g 

by his encouragement of genuine talent in our local artists, 
done much for the formation and perpetuating of a high 
standard of art in Rochester. His " Brief Sketches of 
our Painters" from Paul Hinds (1820) to John W. Miller, 
the fresco-painter, who to-day makes Powers' art gallery to 
bloom as a rose, gives us, with many other glimpses of the 
lives of our artists, what we cannot help noting in this con- 
nection, — the fact that the majority of them first set up 
their easels, in our midst at least, in the old Arcade. Many 
a now famous artist has hung out a sign on that upper 
floor, bearing an unknown, and, perhaps, while with uS, an 
unnoticed name. 

The year 1834 in our art history is memorable as the one 
in which Grove S. Gilbert came to Rochester, of all our 
artists the acknowledged head. It is hard to define his 
superiority. Artists say, "You have only to look at his 
portraits and there it is," — the indescribable something 
Gilbert Stuart called the "that" of a picture, for lack of 
any other name. Self-taught, forbidden by stern necessity 
to become a copyist if so inclined, ignorant of the rules 
deemed indispensable for the regulation of genius, he began 
to work out his ideal of true portraiture in his own way, 
which he could neither teach nor explain ; and the result 
was, artists of eminence in the eastern cities were soon 
deriding him for staying longer where his matchless brush 
could never bring him the ducats he deserved. But Gilbert 
had a peculiar fondness for his Arcade studio, and his true 
artist temperament made worldly emoluments to him of 
little value. He was content to abide with us, and paint 
his portraits in his own time and his own way, refusing, 
even when not overburdened with orders, to paint such 
— and here it is hard to find a better word than Gilbert 
Stuart's — as did not have the " that " in them for him to 
paint from. The "that" was not a thing of the outward 
physiognomy with him. He painted from the inner life, 
the personality, and his portraits must give the best and 
characteristic phase. If he caught the revelation clearest 
and strongest in someone feature, — the eye, the outline 



l60 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of a cheek in a certain mood, — the rest of the face was 
secondary to him, dependent upon it. One can easily 
understand his Hmitations ruled by ideas so uncompromis- 
ing to every principle seeking gain or the approval of his 
patrons. I doubt if all his sitters appreciated the honor 
conferred upon them when he consented to reproduce 
their faces upon his canvas ; and why his portraits, in addi- 
tion to their exquisite management of color, and breadth of 
chiaro-oscuro, have an ideality the true artist recognizes as 
the reality subtly caught by one who could discover its 
existence. 

The self-depreciation of Gilbert has always been a wall 
of adamant between him and extended fame. To praise 
his work required more tact than to criticise that of many 
an inferior artist. His ideal was exalted. He humbly did 
his best, and that not for your commendation ; and now in 
his declining years, his old Arcade studio forsaken, he half 
wonders why he ever attempted to paint at all. 

A collection and exhibition of his portraits would renew 
the inquiry, " Why did he not become the most famous of 
portrait painters } " Mr. Dewey tells the story that when, 
after much solicitation, Gilbert was finally prevailed upon to 
send one of his heads to the Academy of Design several 
years ago, the work so e.xcited the admiration of the artists 
that Elliott, the distinguished portrait painter, offered Gil- 
bert's name at once as a member, and he was unanimously 
elected. He would never have sent the picture of his own 
free will. 

In the forty-five years and more in which he painted por- 
traits in the Arcade studio, the following persons are among 
the many who have sat before his easel : Jesse Hawley, Dr. 
Matthew Brown (it was this portrait he sent to the Academy 
of Design), the Rev. Dr. Wisner, a former pastor of the 
Brick Church, the Rev. Dr. Whitehouse, of St. Luke's, the 
late Bishop of Illinois, the Hon. Levi Ward, considered by 
Mr. Gilbert one of his best pictures. Dr. Dewey, Harvey 
Humphrey, Mr. and Mrs. D. M, Dewey, several portraits for 
the family of Gil man H. Perkins, etc. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. l6l 

" I never voted but once, if I remember rightly," is one 
of the reminiscences won from him when he was in a story- 
telling mood, — the modulations of his low, peculiar voice 
reminding one in some inexplicable way of the something 
hard to define in the charm of his pictures, — "and that was 
in 1848, when I voted for myself. You see we Abolition- 
ists got up an Abolition State ticket of our own, and it took 
the whole thirteen of us here to fill the offices. They nom- 
inated me for member of assembly," pausing tranquilly for 
us to have our laugh. " We voted for John G. Birney for 
President that campaign, — would rather lose our vote than 
vote for the slave power. Who were the old Abolitionists 
then .^ My memory fails me, but there was John Kedzie 
and Isaac Post and Burtis," — looking dreamingly at a 
sunny spot in the carpet, to break out with gentle impa- 
tience, — " Can't I remember those thirteen old Abolition 
ists } Well," submissively, " their names may come to me 
by and by." 

Among the artists of the old Arcade to whom the appear- 
ance of our public streets is largely indebted are our sign 
painters. We have only to imagine what our thoroughfares 
would be like had Arnold, Van Dorn, Ethridge, Lines, etc., 
been lacking in the true artistic sense, to give thanks from 
a full heart. George Arnold's first sign, painted in 1826, 
was "A. Reynolds, Postmaster." Speaking of the sign 
painters of the Arcade brings up inevitably from the past 
Othello Hamlet Ethridge, a man as closely identified with 
the old building as are the Genesee Falls with Rochester. 
To think of the entrance as it used to be, Eugene Sintzinch's 
paintings of Niagara on either side, making the passage on 
a hot sultry day something like a plunge into the Rapids, is 
to see the striking figure of Ethridge passing along the 
gallery, or posing at the entrance, his unique costume in- 
suring the gaze of a stranger at once, if it did not result 
in tracking him to " 10.000 Arcade" to learn what his be- 
longings could be. There was a flavor of Hamlet and a 
smack of Othello in the man and his costume, wherever you 
found him ; and we can easily believe the story that at a 



l62 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Canadian resort, once on a time, he enjoyed the jest of 
passing for "me lord." He usually wore black trousers, 
a black velvet cutaway coat, a red waistcoat, — if waistcoat 
was not renounced entirely for an expanse of snowy linen, 

and, when the weather required it, a rather brigandish 

looking circular cloak, black on ordinary occasions, white 
on the extraordinary. His jet black waving hair fell upon 
his shoulders, his beard was long and fastidiously cared for, 
a white dress hat with a wide band of black crowning all, 
save when at work, when the jaunty skull cap made us won- 
der his artistic sense did not lead to his wearing it exclu- 
sively. He made his own clothing, every stitch, and those 
stitches were the perfection of needlework, and the fitting 
all that Othello Hamlet Ethridge required. His peculiarity 
was neatness, his specialty, diamonds. He always carried a 
fortune of rare gems around with him, and was the supreme 
authority on diamonds. He could tell you who wore paste, 
and whose diamonds were of the purest water. His glit- 
tering eyes read a false stone at a glance. There seemed 
to be something in common between him and diamonds, a 
clairvoyant sympathy impossible to define or explain. Ec- 
centric in his friendships and confidences, he was often 
imposed upon, and disappointed in those he trusted most. 
Yet he was quick in his sympathies and ready to help the 
unfortunate, until, perhaps, the gratification of these kindly 
impulses was at the root of the misfortunes which led him 
once to an asylum for the insane. He was an interesting 
character study, whether attempting to play Claude Mel- 
notte, or lifting his voice with the converts of a Methodist 
revival, as in his younger days. It was then that a good 
brother remonstrated with him for his gay apparel. "If 
there's any more religion in your clothes than in mine," said 
Ethridge, " I '11 change with you." 

He excelled in sign lettering, particularly script. He 
could not paint a good picture, but those wonderful signs 
children at least delight in, signs giving a different word 
from different stand-points, were his specialty. It must be 
admitted that of the list of names of those who have given 



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A DECADE MEMORABLE. 163 

a certain indigenous individuality to the Arcade, a list 
headed by William A. Reynolds, followed by D. M. Dewey, 
G. S. Gilbert, J. M. Mundy, the sculptor Fleming, and old 
Charlie Cazeau, if there is a name more inseparable from 
memories of the place than another, it is that of Othello 
Hamlet Ethridge and his diamonds. 

Contemporaneous with the building of the Arcade was 
that of many edifices, both public and private, still credit- 
able to our city's architecture. The cement covering the 
front of the Arcade calls for special mention. The same is 
found on the Jonathan Child building on Exchange Street, 
the old residence of Jacob Gould, now Dr. Rider's, South 
Fitzhugh Street, and possibly some others. The secret of 
its composition w^as known only to the Frenchman who was 
brought here from New York to prepare and apply it. He 
died suddenly and his secret with him, but the excellence 
of his cement needs no vindication in Rochester. 

The latter part of this memorable decade saw ambitious 
buildings and private residences going up like magic. It 
may have been over the borders of the time specified that 
many of a particular architectural school of mansions, with 
majestic rows of Grecian columns across their gable fronts, 
gave our third ward its academical appearance. John Allen 
built a house in the prevailing fashion on Allen Street, and 
the old Mumford place on State Street deviated but little 
from the severe rule. The Whittlesey homestead, and that 
formerly of Jonathan Child on South Washington Street, 
are among the finest and best preserved specimens of this 
early style. The office of Austin, the architect of those 
days, reflects the same in miniature, the pigmy Parthenon 
on Exchange Street, facing Court, still standing. ... It 
was in this memorable decade that the old Aqueduct House, 
at the west end of the first aqueduct, and directly in the 
way of the proposed new one, was moved over to Spring 
Street, where it was a fashionable family boarding-house for 
several years, and known as the Spring Street Hotel. In 
turning over the old files, one can find advertisements set- 
ting forth the attractions of the Aqueduct House, for what 



l64 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Other hotel could boast of such location, not only on the 
banks of the canal, but with the world famous viaduct at its 
very portal, and a stretch of grass plot for its rurally in- 
clined boarders besides. 

If the Arcade was the forum of ancient Rochester, 
Child's Basin and slip was its Mediterranean, conditioning 
and vitalizing its canal commerce. 

Exchange Street was a great business thoroughfare, and 
the building erected by Jonathan Child on his canal slip 
was considered only secondary to the Arcade. The upper 
floor had been intended by Mr. Child, who was a devoted 
Mason, for a Masonic Hall, etc. ; but the Morgan affair 
changed all that, and it was converted into a theatre, in 
whose magnificence the puritanical prophets among us saw 
the doom of our city's prosperity. One of the reminis- 
cences of that old theatre is of the night when Lord Mor- 
peth, in passing through Western New York, honored our 
playhouse with his attendance, and presto ! the drop cur- 
tain was a view of my lord's country house and park. 
What more could we have done had we made ready to re- 
ceive him .'' 

It was in this decade that the great majority of our mills 
were built, introducing into the geographies what many of 
us have been proud in reciting : " Rochester is famous for 
the largest flour mills in the world." The market buildings 
were on the north side of Main Street bridge, an open plat- 
form, adjoining the bridge, of twenty feet, designed for a 
vegetable market ; next a raised platform on a grade corre- 
sponding to the sidewalks of Buffalo and Main streets, of 
which the market was a continuation. Next to this was a 
covered meat market having in the centre a walk of twelve 
feet wide between two rows of turned columns, and on 
either side the places for stalls, each ten by fourteen feet. 
This building was built on the plan of the fine new market 
in Boston, and cost some three thousand dollars. The south 
side of Buffalo Street, between the bridge and Aqueduct 
Street, the northern boundary of Allan's old mill yard, was 
an open space for market and produce wagons until the 




MILLS OF CHARLES J. HILL. 




MILLS OF E. W. SCRANTOM. 



From O'Reilly, iSj8. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 



165 



present buildings upon it were erected some time in tiie 
early Forties. There was a town pump in the locality, and 
it was not until the magnificent market house was built on 
Mason, now Front Street, in 1837 or 1838, that the appear- 
ance of our Main Street was changed from that of a coun- 
try market place into something more like a commercial 
thoroughfare. And here may be told the story of the 
wooden ox that used to adorn the facade of the new mar- 
ket house, long since removed to give place to the present 
public buildings. Its image is indehbly impressed upon the 




The New Market. (1838.) 

earliest memories of some of us, and a very good and artistic 
piece of workmanship it was, the gift of Nehemiah Osburn 
to the city. He was one of the contractors for the building, 
and added that much to its decoration, one Peter La Place, 
a mechanic of undeveloped genius, fashioning the same with- 
out design or model, or, as he expressed it, "just outer my 
own head." First he made the fore legs, according to Mr. 
Osburn's story, and set them up. Then the hind legs, 
bridging them with the body, which was designed and fin- 
ished in sections. The result was so successful that when 
it was borne down Front Street at midday in an open wagon, 
one poor Irishman at least was nearly paralyzed with terror, 
thinking the beast was alive and making ready to leap at 



1 66 



ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 



him. A search for this venerable relic, which should have 
had a place in our future historical museum, has revealed 
the suspicion that the fires of our Poor Department were 
kindled with its remains. There are a few lingering- speci- 
mens of the art of Peter La Place on the fence posts of 
Nehemiah Osburn's residence, at the corner of East Ave- 
nue and Elm Street. 



THE OLD HIGH SCHOOL. 



Pioneer days were hardly over, when our pioneers, in the 
comfortable, even luxurious homes they had founded, were 




Rochester High School, 

chiefly considering how they might give their children the 
advantages of superior education. In the " Directory " for 
1827 we read : — 

"The extreme occupation and multiplicity of urgent pub- 
lic objects has hitherto prevented the citizens of Roches- 
ter from making those efforts in the cause of literature and 
education which their importance demands. There is as 
yet no public library of general literature, nor public semi- 
nary of education. Measures are in operation, however, for 
prosecuting both of these objects, which it is hoped the 
present year will see in a good state of advancement. The 
private and district schools of the village are about 20 in 
number, in which 1,150 children and youth are instructed 
in all the branches of a common and classical education." 




rP" 



c~ 






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MILLS OF WARHAM WHITNEY. 




EAGLE MILLS. 
From O'Riilly, 1S3S. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 16/ 

It is in that same " Directory " we find the following note- 
worthy statement : " It is a remarkable fact, that in a pop- 
ulation of nearly 8,000, not one adult person is a native of 
the village ! The oldest person now living in the village, 
who was born here, is not yet seventeen years of age." 
The burden of the little "Directory" is a plea for educa- 
tion, and, in its fervid effort to gain the hearing of parents, 
it goes on to say : " There is yet no institution of learning- 
enjoying a pubHc and organized patronage. There is no 
edifice built for science, no retreat for the Muses, no aca- 
demick grove yet planted." 

There was the Monroe High School, in Henrietta, which 
the farmers of that vicinity, aided by a few individuals in 
Rochester, had built, at a cost of some five thousand dollars. 
Miss Mary B. Allen had been engaged as its principal as 
early as 1828, when it was the only incorporated institution 
for education between Utica and Buffalo. The then famous 
monitorial system of the school gave it an extended reputa- 
tion, and Dr. Ward and Jacob Gould, of our city, were its 
enthusiastic supporters. " During the two years that I was 
there," writes Mrs. King, formerly Miss Allen, in her "Au- 
tobiography," "there were few days that we did not have 
visitors in the school. In some cases wedding parties came 
there for their first trip." 

It would never do to encourage this rivalry in a little vil- 
lage like Henrietta, and so we are not surprised to find in 
the "Directory" for 1832 the following advertisement, un- 
der the head, however, of " Rochester Seminary " : — 

" This Seminary was organized as a public Institution 
in 1832, on a plan to meet the actual wants of Rochester 
and the surrounding country. Until a more central loca- 
tion can be prepared by the comprehensive and united pol- 
icy of this city, the Seminary occupies the premises of the 
Rochester High School, in Clinton Street. The edifice is 
of stone, three stories high, 80 feet by 50, with its grounds 
and apparatus costing ^7,500. 

"The Seminary has four Departments, and a Professional 
Teacher for each. 



1 68 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

" The Female Department occupies the third story, in 
six rooms. It is under the immediate care of a Principal, 
Miss Mary B. Allen, salary 1^500, and assistants. Average 
number of young ladies, 70 ; many of whom are taught by 
the professional gentlemen in their respective branches. 

"I. English Department. Boys from 7 to 14 years, aim- 
ing at a thorough English Education, or an early acquaint- 
ance with Latin, Greek, French, or the elements of several 
sciences, form the English Department, conducted by Mr. 
Josiah Perry, late Principal of the Ogdensburgh Academy. 
Salary, $600 ; Pupils, ^35. 

" 2. Department of Mathematicks and Natural History. 
Young Men and Boys, in Commercial Arithmetick, Book 
Keeping, Mathematicks, Botany, Mineralogy, Chymistry. 
Surveying, and Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, enter 
this Department, conducted by Mr. Daniel Marsh, A. M. 
Salary, $700. The Cabinet of Minerals, the Botanical Col- 
lection and Apparatus, are adequate. Students not in- 
cluded in other departments, 35. 

" The appropriation from the Literary Fund of the State 
was $466, for 186 students, the first in number of any acad- 
emy in the State. Young men and Ladies pursuing stud- 
ies during the year, with a view to teaching, 65. The num- 
ber of district schools making application for teachers from 
November to January, over 30. 

"It is a leading object of this institution to furnish qual- 
ified teachers. The number of students having the Gospel 
Ministry in view, 25. The institution has a Board of Trus- 
tees, viz. : Charles M. Lee, Esq., President ; William Atkin- 
son, Secretary ; O. N. Bush, Treasurer. There is also a 
Board of Examiners, to inspect the institution and recom- 
mend improvements, viz. : Rev, Plenry John Whitehouse, 
of St. Luke's Church ; Rev. William Wisner, of the Brick 
Church ; Rev. Tryon Edwards, of the First Presbyterian 
Church ; Rev. Oliver C. Comstock, of the First Baptist 
Church ; Rev. Barton H. Hickox, of Grace Church ; Rev. 
Luke Lyons, of the Free Church ; Rev. Elon Galusha, of 
the Second Baptist Church ; Rev. Millard Fillmore, Minis- 



— 2 




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50 ^ 

fit fit 




A DECADE MEMORABLE. 169 

ter in charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; Hon, 
Ashley Sampson, Hon. Moses Chapin, Hon. F. Whittlesey, 
Dr. W. W. Reid." 

The Rev. Chester Dewey, whose name recalls the sweet- 
est memories of the old pupils of the old High School, was 
not called to become its principal until after the resignation 
of the Rev. Gilbert Morgan. Before his memorable arrival, 
not long after 1836, the school had passed through the great 
revival season, and Mrs. King's description of the effect 
upon the pupils, scoffers and converted alike, leads at least 
to a study of the contrast between the educational system of 
that day and this. Dr. Dewey's advent must have changed 
many things for the better, so healthful was his influence 
in every way. 

In May, 1874, the old school-boys of this earliest epoch 
of The Institute were inspired by one of their number, 
Hon. Edward M. Smith,^ to have a reunion here in Roches- 
ter, and lo ! from every corner of the land were they sum- 
moned, — those who attended the High School before 1843, 
— and a fair majority responded, gray-headed men the most 
of them, of honorable names not a few. An organization 
had been perfected at a previous meeting, to be called 
" The Old School-Boys of Rochester," and the following 
officers elected for the ensuing year : President, Edward 
M. Smith ; Treasurer, S. G. Philips ; Secretary, William G. 
Congdon ; Executive Committee : William N. Sage, Jacob 
Howe, T. A. Newton, Henry F. Smith, J. B. Ward ; His- 
torical Committee : T. C. Montgomery, James L. Angle, 
Newell A. Stone." 

The reports of that supper, at which more than a hun- 
dred merry, story-telling old boys, dignified titles appended 
to the famous names of a considerable sprinkling, made 
some of the old school-girls, at least, to question if " the 
celestials " of the old Institute had, after all, occupied that 

■ While reading this proof a cable disj^atch from London announces, " April 
12. E. M. Smith, American Consul at Manheim, died of apoplexy last even- 
ing in a railway carriage. He was on his way home." He was to iiave sailed 
for New York on the 15th. 



I/O ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

place in the thoughts of " the terrestrials," and the denizens 
of the lower story, whose appellation is perhaps forgotten, 
as had been supposed. But even without them the reunion 
was a delightful gathering, and from the many cajDital things 
that were said upon the occasion, the letters read, the mem- 
ories revived, we get our truest insight into the life of the 
High School pupil, at least prior to 1843, with much valu- 
able historical knowledge besides. The papers of the 
Society, including those called out by the reunion of 1876, 
have been placed in my hands by the Secretary, Mr. Cong- 
don, and in looking them over for a resume here, I regret 
they may not be published entire, as historical limitations 
necessarily exclude many of the most interesting docu- 
ments. The uppermost topics at the feast and in the letters 
sent with regrets and memories were " the beloved Dr. 
Dewey," "Old Perry," Professor Wetherel, and the unique 
peculiarities of the building, class-rooms, and best remem- 
bered pupils. Among the latter the names of Norman 
Peck and Fred Starr were perhaps most frequently men- 
tioned. The distinguished men who were once old High 
School boys were catalogued : Ex-Senator Doolittle, Presi- 
dent of the Chicago University ; Ely S. Parker, an Indian 
chief upon Grant's staff during the war, and the writer of 
the terms of the surrender at Vicksburg ; General M. R. 
Patrick ; C. P. Dewey, a son of " the Doctor," and editor of 
the "Commercial Advertiser;" Hon. E. Peshine Smith', 
Attorney General Barlow, of Wisconsin ; H. M. Whitney, 
of Sandwich Islands fame ; Colonel John D. Sage ; Anson G. 
Stager, of the Western Union ; Dr. Haydcn, the naturalist, 
connected with the Smithsonian and Yellowstone expedi- 
tions ; E. Delafield Smith ; Marcius Jewell ; Wm. F. Cogs- 
well ; John N. Pomeroy ; Seth Green ; and a host of others, 
not forgetting Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood), who 
read her first compositions on the platform of the old High 
School. 

Let it first be recorded what these time-mellowed hearts 
had to offer in memory of Dr. Dewey. Professor Wetherel 
sent his sincere regrets from the office of the Boston " Cul- 
tivator," and the following sentiment : — 




(^,a 




A DECADE MEMORABLE. I /I 

" The memory of Professor Dewey. The friend of God 
and the benefactor of men, — a name that the old school- 
boys will ever tenderly cherish and delight to honor." 

Dr. McKnight, of Elmira, testified to the blessed influ- 
ence of Dr. Dewey upon the boys under his care. The 
principles he taught them were the foundation of their 
character and influence. 

" First and foremost among our teachers," wrote James 
B. Smith from Humboldt, Kansas, " stood Dr. Dewey. We 
know to-day that we never over-estimated him. Our boy- 
ish impressions of his manliness, learning, wisdom, good- 
ness, and geniality, were confirmed all along life. What 
a lot of boys he always had tagging after him on his way 
through the lane, and along Clinton Street. I certainly 
never knew another man of his age whose whole nature was 
so overflowing with the freshness, spirit, and enthusiasm of 
youth. It was my honor to be his humble bottle-holder 
during the courses of lectures he delivered in the school- 
room next St. Luke's Church. One night, after turning 
the corner of St, Paul and Main, he suddenly seized me 
and pitched me into a basement stairway partly filled with 
drifted snow. Off he scampered as gleesome as a boy of 
fourteen. 

" ' Can't be doing anything there. Smith ! Can't be doing 
anything there, Starr! ' was the signal for Fred and me to 
get to work after ten or fifteen minutes fooled away in that 
curiosity shop of pulleys, levers, etc., in Fred's desk. Of 
course you all remember his automatic desk lifter. . . . 
When he left the firmament of his calling here, it was as a 
star of the first magnitude, and his rays still fall earthway, 
illuminating the hearts and minds of many Christian patri- 
ots. ... I have heard that he died leaving books and tool 
chest together in his study." 

It was to the writer of that letter that the Rev. Darwin 
Chichester referred in his : " Henry F. Smith had a busy 
brain and was always making things lively. He was never 
so sober, however, as when he was making others laugh. 
How well I remember Dr. Dewey's saying to him once, * If 



T72 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

you could control the weather, Smith, we should have thun- 
der and lightning all the time.' " 

" How well I recall," wrote Derick Boardman from Troy, 
*' the old Institute, and that untiring student of nature, the 
ever-to-be-venerated Dr. Dewey. Do you remember him, 
in his long flowing gown, as he would pleasantly summon 
us from play to the be-whittled desk, or, as he led us on 
some geological spree along the banks of the river, how his 
face would brighten when some of us would show him a 
specimen of the Silurian age, or when he could point out to 
us the smoothing track of the drift of the glacial period } " 

" Dr. Dewey," said Charles B. Hill, " was the teacher we 
all loved, immortal in the hearts of the old school-boys. Do 
you remember that at one time considerable ingenuity was 
displayed among us in the construction of complicated ma- 
chinery for raising and holding up our desk covers ? Well, 
Smith had one of these contrivances in operation, and was 
carefully brushing his hair before a mirror on the desk lid. 
Dr. Dewey came in, watched him, smiling, for a moment, 
and said, ' Smith, it 's the inside of your head that needs 
brushing.' " 

" Don't you remember," asked Cyrus Durfee, " how he 
would answer us when we kept asking to go out .'' * Go out ? 
No ! there's a thousand boys out there already, and less, 
too.' " 

Many and touching were the sincere tributes to the mem- 
ory of Dr. Dewey. His name was the sweet minor chord 
of the full melody ; and what was that of Professor Perry, 
" Old Perry," as he was called ? The boys are of age, and 
shall speak for themselves on the subject. Their testimony 
is a confirmation of Mrs. King's suggestive evidence, 
when she says that Professor Perry's " thorough discipline 
will be long remembered by the boys under his care." The 
first witness to Professor Perry's standing among his old 
pupils I find on a card accepting the invitation to the re- 
union : " For Heaven's sake, don't have old Perry's ghost at 
the banquet," suggesting, possibly, the letter straightway 
received by the secretary, purporting to come from Perry's 
srhost : — 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 73 

" Although I have received no invitation to attend your 
reunion, it would give me great pleasure to make you all 
unhappy upon that occasion, and I know of nothing that 
could make you more miserable than to see old Perry again 
in your midst. . . . When I was in the flesh, it was my 
practice, you will remember, to go in on my muscle daily, 
and polish up such boys as Hen Haight, Bob Allen, Fred 
Whittlesey, and the Bissell boys — to wallop Charlie Hill, 
Ans Gorton, Ev. Kempshall, Joe Ward, and Chet Dewey, 
and to dust the jackets of Billy Congdon, Ed Smith, Ans 
Stager, Fatty Backus, and the rest, whose names I have for- 
gotten. ... I am now in charge of the Juvenile Delin- 
quents in the subterranean House of Refuge, and I make it 
lively for them. Give my love to all the boys who won hon- 
orable scars on the skirmish line of early life under me, par- 
ticularly to Seth Green, who, I am told, after stocking the 
rivers and lakes of America with bull-heads and suckers, 
has opened a fish market at Lane & Paine's drug store." 

"But Perry had his good points," contended the Rev. 
John Copeland. " He could beat grammar into a boy's 
head when nobody else could." This called up Dr. Kemp- 
shall's story, of course, when old Perry thrashed Whipple 
and himself for being late, and how Whipple ran a long pin 
into the master's neck "nearly up to the head." 

" Shades of old Perry and Brittain ! " sighed a Doctor of 
Divinity, "how they start up !" 

" I remember how instinctively I shrank into my first 
boots when I met the gaze of his terrible eyes," said 
Charles B. Hill, and story after story followed, — a terrible 
retribution for the old master. What a horrible dream 
that had been for him in the old times, had he foreseen 
that banquet and heard the memories of his old pupils. 

" No teacher," wrote James B. Smith, " ever bequeathed 
to his pupils a raggeder-edged reputation than old Perry. 
His memory was execrated by every boy, with one excep- 
tion or two, in that famous two hundred. I think Murray 
Moore loved him. . . . Perry does not really deserve all the 
maledictions we heap upon his memory. There was some 



174 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

excellence in the man. His ideas of discipline were in 
accord with the convictions of the day. He was approved 
by our parents arid sustained by them. Some of us are 
indebted to him for what thoroughness we had in the rudi- 
ments of a scholastic education. ... If neatness and clean- 
liness be next to godliness, old Perry was far from being a 
devil. He helped me to ideas for making a model school. 
. . . You all remember that formula we used to repeat, 
' Missed one, here before the bell rung, studied two hours 
at home.' ... I can see those buckskin gloves with which 
he handled shovel and tongs. I can see that hammer and. 
screw-driver with which he used to frighten Billy Allen, 
telling him he would take him in pieces and make him over 
into a better boy. Were any of you ever put into the wood 
box and made to wear a fool's cap .? . . . My cheeks tingle 
now as I see the blow with which he felled Cal Holmes to 
the floor. I can see him choke Ame Policy, and the rest of 
us dancing to his rawhide, but I still admire the emeralds 
in his spray breast-pin and the rich tones of his voice in the 
devotional exercises. . . . He taught us a lesson that our 
children profit by. Let us honor the good there was in 
him for the good he brought us, and believe that had he 
lived and taught in this day, he would have been more gen- 
tle, tolerant, and humane." 

" There was always something to think and laugh about 
when Norman Peck was around," wrote another boy. 
" His desk was a curiosity. The underside of that lid was 
a sight to behold. When the girls marched in for recitation 
and sat behind him, that lid would go up, the teachers won- 
dering what the girls could be laughing at. He had turned 
that desk into something like a canal boat. 'No smoking 
allowed,' was what greeted their eyes, and other startling 
posters." 

" Do you remember," somebody was asking, " how after a 
boy had spoken his piece one Friday afternoon with great dis- 
play of voice and gesticulation, Norman Peck mounted the 
platform, and, imitating the preceding speaker, exclaimed, 
' Has the gentleman done t Has he completely done .■' He 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 75 

has done,' and walked gravely to his seat unmoved by the 
uproar of applause, Dr. Dewey saying, ' You have done ex- 
ceeding well, Mr. Peck,' enjoying the affair heartily." 

" Cal Holmes was the orator of the school," writes one of 
the boys. "Jed and Bick Newell were the best runners. 
Kas Jervis the organizer of societies. Bissell, the roaring 
debater. Charlie Seelye was the skeptic. Jim Miller, the 
Britisher. Hen Haight, the dead shot at marbles. George 
Guernsey had a passion for trombones. Gus Backus was 
the club boy. Ed Wright, the obstinate boy. Hugh Allen 
was pugilistic. Jim Bush was a roarer. Bill Bingham, a 
swell. John Haywood, the paragon in mathematics. Fred 
Starr had great mechanical skill, and it did n't answer to 
call Jim Smith a ' sorrel top,' unless you could stand the 
racket." 

" I keep among my treasures," said another, " an old 
book with the name of Seth Green written in it in a boy's 
chirography on the inside of the cover, — a name known 
to-day wherever rivers flow or fish flop. In another of my 
books is a sketch by Thomas Rossiter, who became a dis- 
tinguished artist before he died. . . . There was Wm. N. 
Sage, with fresh, rosy face and resolute mouth, and laugh- 
ing eyes." 

" I wonder if the Rev. Dr. Miller remembers," asked the 
Rev. T. Dwight Hunt, "the time he waded with me through 
a covered sewer extending from a swamp near the canal at 
Washington Street, across and under Buffalo Street, and so 
down past Howe's Bakery towards the river } Rare times 
we had there underground, for which we had been well 
trounced had the folks at home been the wiser." 

Dyer W. Fitch gave among his many pleasant reminis- 
cences this one, which belongs to us all : — 

" I well remember among my school-fellows an active 
boy of marked individuality, whose restless spirit no pent 
up school-room could long confine, and who was given to 
taking practical observations of what was going on at all 
times and seasons at the Falls, the Bay, and the Lake. . . . 
If the school-master did wink sometimes harder than he 



176 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

ought at the boy's absence from school, it was all for the 
best, for Seth Green was developing the special bent of his 
ofenius in a new school of culture." 

" I remember our class in Geometry," writes George 
Needham, " but recall few names but Sandford Smith's, and 
two of Miss Allen's pupils, Celestia Bloss and Helen Mal- 
lett, who were the equals of the boys in all their reci- 
tations." 

Among the acceptances and regrets sent in are many 
showing that the old boy nature was still alive in the writ- 
er's heart. Charlie Backus scrawls a big " Yes," and his 
rollicking autograph. Wm. Emerson promises to be on 
hand " when the first bell rings." George P. Bissell de- 
sires to come and means to, but remembers Joe Ward owes 
him " a licking." George Green is shad hatching on the 
Hudson, and must be excused, while C. Bissell recounts 
the lions in his way to the reunion with amusing brevity. 
Jacob Howe writes from Clifton Springs, " I am where I 
used to be sometimes you know. I can't go out to play 
with the rest of you. I am kept in." 

" I am now in my seventy-seventh year," writes B. New- 
man from Victor, regretting he cannot meet with the boys. 
" I have lived in Victor forty-seven years, but my memory 
of my school-days in Rochester, from 18 14 to 1820, is the 
pleasantest memory I have. I boarded at Marcellus P. 
Covert's, and Lawyer Mastick boarded there. I went to 
school with Edwin Scrantom and his brothers. Our 
teachers were Mr, Cook, Mr. Moses King, etc." 

" I think I am about as old as any old school-boy," said 
Edwin Scrantom. "I went to the first school ever taught 
in Rochester, — Huldah Strong's. I went to Moses King's 
first school in Frankford, and the two schools together 
did n't make a corporal's guard." 

" The district schools of early times," wrote William Bar- 
nard, " were not as popular as the free schools of to-day. 
We boys had the idea they were got up expressly for poor 
folks. . . . One of these select school-teachers, Mr. Wilder, 
paid great attention to writing. There was a post near his 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 77 

desk full of gimlet holes, with our names under them. 
After writing we stuck our quill pens there for him to 
mend before the next day. Among the early teachers of 
the select schools were Mr. Freeman, Alexander Kelsey, 
D. B. Crane, Ellery S. Treat, and Erastus Spaulding. The 
first district school was next to St. Luke's Church, a long 
one story frame building, its one room divided by a sliding 
partition. I think it was taught by Mr. and Mrs. Brayton." 

One more pleasant reminiscence for the benefit of the 
school-boy band scattered far and wide over our land. To 
have been a boy in Rochester before 1850 was to have at- 
tended the old High School — and where do we not find 
the Rochester boy .^ 

"The old High School boys," said Charles B. Hill, "are 
scattered in every direction ; you will find them wherever 
you go. I remember years ago while waiting in a lonely 
and seldom visited spot in California for a steamer to San 
Francisco, as the boat came up to the dock, I heard 
a voice from the upper deck exclaiming, * Charlie Hill ! 
Where did you come from .? ' and there, one of a lot of red- 
shirted, long -bearded miners, was Jake Barhydt, whose 
smiling face I see here to-night." 

These reunions were of the boys who attended the High 
School prior to 1843, although we find among them the 
names of students of a later date. The High School had 
seen its best days before 1848. The superior free schools 
of the city were the chief cause of its decline. Its financial 
basis was never sound. A. W. Riley was the contractor 
for the building, upon which the trustees expended a greater 
sum than was authorized. When it was burned down in 
1850, the trustees were still owing him a considerable sum, 
of which the interest only was fully paid. Perhaps it was 
at the time that Mrs. Greenough had charge of the young 
ladies department that the Institute was at its apex of suc- 
cess. It was then the fashionable school of the city, for 
young ladies at least, and the receptions and entertain- 
ments of the highly cultivated preceptress were much 
talked about. There were few if any prayer-meetings held 



1/8 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

among the pupils in those days, but the tableaux vivants 
and masquerades were magnificent. Sara J. Clark was a 
pupil about 1842-43, and the school-girls of a later day, 
when Grace Greenwood was a famous name, knew just 
where to find her autograph on the pencil bescribblcd 
walls. Professor Wetherel was associated with the Insti- 
tute longer than any other teacher. His tall, erect figure, 
military bearing, piercing eye, and peculiar gesticulations 
with his inseparable ruler, come up as inevitably with old 
High School memories as do the buttonwood- trees, the 
rickety stile, and the long wood-piles filling the playground 
in the fall, slowly but surely diminishing before spring with 
the demands of the great box, three-storied stoves. What 
a cheerless, dusty, inconvenient building it was, and must 
have been at its best, compared with the High School of 
to-day, \v'ith its elevator, steam-heaters, carpets, and electric 
bells, and yet I doubt me if the High School pupils of to- 
day will ever look back to their luxuries with anything like 
the sentiment the latter day pupils even of the Institute 
perpetually bestow upon its memory. How common it was 
to find mice in our dinner baskets, to have them leap from 
our desks in the morning, to trip our light fantastic toes 
against the loose upstarting nails in the floors, to drink tepid 
water from the pail in the hall, and to shiver in the great 
gusty school-rooms on a cold day. Of course each pupil 
furnished desk and chair, thus adding to the variety of 
the school-room furniture. The blackboards stood slant- 
ing against the wall, a capital hiding-place from which the 
truant could peep out and make the class a mystery to the 
teacher. We broke up the chalk ourselves, no chalk pen- 
cils then, and were smothered in the dust of the " rags." 
We did have curtains, strips of unbleached factory that 
flapped to the zephyrs on a summer's day, unless we tied 
them into knots. The old bell-rope lay in a coil directly 
before the entrance to the young ladies' school-room. The 
odor of the cooking going on at noon-time in the little 
room where lodged the janitors, — school-boys working their 
way up life's ladder, — how definitely we knew their bill of 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 79 

fare. The High School pupils of to-day will remember 
with gratitude, it is hoped, the perfected system of teach- 
ing and discipline which they enjoy ; but they need waste 
no pity upon us who paid handsomely for all we received 
at the Institute, and never dreamed of criticising our envi- 
ronment. The High School boys of to-day will in 1924 have 
few study-hour pranks to relate, fewer barbarities of teach- 
ers to depict, few or no instances of hand to hand en- 
counter between teacher and pupil. Their reunions will 
be enlivened by rehearsals very different from those of the 
boys of " Old Perry's " time, or even Leander Wetherel's, a 
man far in advance of the ideas of his co-educators a decade 
ago. 

" When I think of those old Institute days," wrote one 
who was a pupil of Miss Rogers in 1849, "^ fii^d myself 
marching in to prayers, and sitting where we were bidden 
to sit against our wishes, where we could not see Professor 
Benedict's boys. Professor Wetherel's were the little fel- 
lows as a rule. Dr. Dewey, Professor Benedict, and Pro- 
fessor Wetherel sit in the desk, or, if prayers are begun, 
one is reading a chapter, the next beside him will offer 
prayer, and to the third will fall the extempore address. 
Can you see Miss Rogers overlooking our ranks without 
turning her head, or seeming distraction from chapter, 

prayer, or sermon } has a four-leaved clover in 

her shoe. The first lad who comes in late after prayer is 
begun is to be linked with her destiny. Joseph Biegler ! 
and how solemn he looks, wondering, of course, why the 
girls laughed when he came in. Will you ever forget how 
many feet make one mile } That statement on the black- 
board is burnt into my memory. And then we go into Dr. 
Dewey's class-room, and hear him recite the lesson in Natu- 
ral Philosophy, for he has that delightful way of discours- 
ing upon what we ought to know but don't, turning upon 
us occasionally, however, with his 'Now do you know.?' . 
' Well, what do you know .? ' It is in the chemistry class 
one morning that he expresses the wish that it was the 
season for red cabbage, as then he could show us a certain 



I So ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

experiment. Sage speaks up promptly that he can bring 
red cabbage, adding, for the Doctor is surprised and puz- 
zled, ' but it 's pickled,' and the Doctor's laugh rings in with 
ours. ... I go into the Virgil class, and Professor Bene- 
dict's big school-room is a model of order and discipline. 
He is a young man, dark brown hair, and searching eyes, 
low voiced, but the master in every sense, and so acknowl- 
edged. ,1 think I could translate better if the room was not 
so still, and if the Professor's eyes were less marvelously 
penetrating. . . . Professor Wetherel hears the ' Parker's 
Aid.' Will we ever dare again to confront him without our 

exercises .'' dro]:)ped a slip of paper on which 

she had written in a disguised hand : — 

"'Professor Wetherel's dear little wife 
Must study her grammar all of her life.' 

He will ask her to parse that to-morrow, see if he don't. . . . 
And now the boys who study P'rench with Miss Rogers are 
coming into class. There is Sed Hetzel in his green plaid 
blouse, brimming over with fun and frolic ; Gus Strong, a 
model of correct deportment, and Jesse Shepherd, who 
keeps us in rosy apples and hickory nuts that he brings 
from Irondequoit every morning. Charley Powers is one 
of this old P'^rench class, and how handsome he is, dark 
as an Indian, his short, closely-fitting jacket setting off 
a fine figure as only those jackets can. . . . Chet Hey- 
wood and Ike Seelye — how like two lions on guard they 
seem at our school-room door ; and Ed Gould and Jimmie 
Hart clattering down East Avenue on their ponies every 
morning from Brighton ; Jimmie Pitkin and Charlie Bel- 
den, inseparable as the Corsican Brothers ; Billy Seward, 
Vin Smith, Hod Bush, Pom Brewster, the Humphreys, the 
Whittleseys, H. F. Smith, Andrew Semple, Otis, Bristol, 
Fenn, Alden, Ledyard, etc., how plainly I can see them all 
in their boyish garb and faces." 

The fire-blackened ruins of the old High School were re- 
moved at last, and the beautiful stone church built by the 
Third Presbyterian Society, and now owned and occupied 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. l8r 

by the Unitarians, was erected on its site. There is Httle 
or nothing in the locahty that was a feature in the old-time 
picture. The narrow lane from Lancaster to Clinton Street 
was long since closed. If anything could transport the old 
pupils back over a space of thirty-five years and more, it 
would be passing between those high board fences of the 
lane, through pools ankle deep. Then we should hear the 
old clang from the belfry, the boys shouting at their game 
of ball, and see the heads of merry girls thrust out from the 
upper-hall window over the entrance door, casting benedic- 
tion upon some luckless lad below. 

There is a bit of history in the name of Lancaster Street, 
calling up what may be termed one of the Blue Glass theo- 
ries of education. 

The Institute was founded upon the Lancastrian system, 
and Joseph Lancaster, making a great noise in the world 
at that time, was declaring that it was possible by his sys- 
tem to teach ten thousand children in different schools, 
children not knowing" their letters, to read fluently in three 
weeks, or three months at the longest. His monitorial 
school in England had become world-famous. Pupils, as 
monitors, were trained to fill the places of teachers. Mrs. 
King gives a detailed description of the system in her 
"Autobiography." The Henrietta Academy had adopted 
it. It was a system of signals and monitors. " Ecce Sig- 
num," that well-remembered inscription on the Principal's 
desk of the Institute, was an heir-loom of the discarded 
Lancastrian system, that so soon became unsatisfactory to 
both teachers and pupils. Lancaster Street is in memory 
of our Lancastrian School. 

Dr. Dewey, in connection with Professor N. W. Benedict, 
had charge of the Collegiate Institute for fourteen years. 
In 1850 he was elected Professor of Chemistry and Natural 
History in the University of Rochester, a position he held 
until his retirement from all active duties at the age of sev- 
enty-six. He was the author of a " History of the Herba- 
ceous Plants of Massachusetts," which was published by the 
State, and of many valuable contributions to our permanent 



1 82 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Botanical and Scientific literature. He lived to a blessed 
old age, keeping up his studies almost to the last, copying 
out his Meteorological Journal, and arranging his large col- 
lection of sedges, the accumulation of years. On the 15th 
of December, 1867, he tranquilly passed away, aged eighty- 
three. Among the many tributes to the good man's mem- 
ory is one by Dr. Anderson, President of our University, 
published in the Smithsonian Report for 1870, and from 
which the following extracts are made. Speaking of Dr. 
Dewey's professorship in Williams College, from 1806 to 
1827, Dr. Anderson says: — 

" He entered upon the work of accumulating and organ- 
izing the apparatus and collections requisite for the study 
of chemistry and natural history with great zeal and enthu- 
siasm ; while he was equally earnest in giving instruction 
in the severer portions of the broad department for whose 
cultivation in the college he was made responsible. He 
fitted up a laboratory, and commenced making collections 
for the illustration of botany, mineralogy, and geology. 
This was accomplished mainly by personal labor and ex- 
changes with those engaged in similar pursuits in our own 
and other countries. These labors gave the initial impulse 
to the cultivation of the natural sciences in Williams Col- 
lesre, and laid the foundations of its now large and valua- 
ble illustrative collections. . . . His intellectual life was a 
beautiful commentary on the remark of Gibbon, that ' it is 
a greater glory to science to develop and perfect mankind 
than it is to enlarge the boundaries of the known universe.' 
. . . He kept his youth, through the simplicity, purity, and 
elevation of his moral and religious life. His trust in the 
moral order was as habitual and as firm as it was in the 
law of universal gravitation. . . , We all honored him as 
a sage ; we loved him as a father. I have never yet met a 
man who so completely as he illustrated the moral elevation 
and spiritual beauty of the Great Teacher's Sermon on the 
Mount. ... To the whole population of Rochester his pres- 
ence in the streets was a benediction." 

Mrs. King, who was associated with Dr. Dewey as a 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 



183 



teacher at the Institute in 1837, a-^^^l who is still living 
(1884), has many pleasant recollections of him. She tells 
the following story : *' I remember one instance of self-con- 
trol that is seldom exercised. One of the ministers was 
absent from the city, and the doctor was the only one that 
could be found to supply the pulpit. His youngest and 
darling child was very sick at the time. He sat by his bed- 
side through Saturday night, and until nearly ten o'clock 
Sabbath morning, when the spirit of the loved one took its 
flight. He then knelt by the bedside, committed his family 
to the compassionate care of a faithful God, and, asking 
strength for himself, went out and fulfilled his engagement, 
saying that individual affliction ought not to interfere with 
the worship of God's House." 

Miss Mary B. Allen's Seminary on North St. Paul Street, 
which she opened about 1838 in the former residence of 
Dr. Ward, has a place in the memories of many, who will 
thank the family of Dr. Ward for the accompanying sketch, 
originally drawn by Eugene Sintznich. 



0X 




The Old Allen Seminary, now the Site of the Warner Buildings, 
North St. Paul Street. 



1 84 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

SAM PATCH. 
1829. 

There is a nameless grave in the little burying-ground 
on the east side of the Charlotte boulevard, just in sight of 
the lake, — a sunken hillock almost hidden by riotous myr- 
tle and pine needles, — where lies a man of world-wide fame, 
whose euphonistic name is forever associated with our city 
and the Genesee Falls. "Rochester?" says the far-away 
stranger. " Oh yes — Sam Patch." 

Sam Patch has a just claim upon us for a correct version 
of his story, which is a part of our history, if not for a head- 
stone. His relations to subsequent events were not insig- 
nificant, hard as they may be to explain. The overwrought 
and prolonged mental disturbance that followed his death 
must have left visible record on public affairs. The major- 
ity of those who saw him sink to rise no more — and the 
whole country lined the banks of the Genesee — were long 
troubled with self-reproach. The preachers of the Sunday 
following intensified this impression ; Josiah Bissell, in the 
old Third Church Sunday-School, telling the children that 
all who had by their presence, or in any other way, induced 
Sam Patch to jump over the Falls were accessory to his 
death, and would be accounted murderers in the sight of 
God. Those were solemn days in Rochester, when the 
best part of our population had an uncomfortable convic- 
tion that the brand of Cain might be written upon their 
foreheads. 

This story of Sam Patch is not compiled without consci- 
entious painstaking, so various and contradictory are the 
many versions. Very few of those who saw the fatal leap 
agree in their description of the event. The authority for 
the following account is chiefly that of Joseph Cochrane, 
who was a clear-headed lad in 1829, and knew Sam Patch 
better than anybody in these parts. Sam and Joe were 
right good friends. Joe's brother, William Cochrane, and 
Orson Weed, a brother of Thurlow, kept the Recess on 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 85 

Exchange Street, where Sam and his bear and fox found 
entertainment. Joe had charge of the animals, and once, 
when a man struck at him in the presence of Bruin, his 
shaggy pet fell upon the assailant, teeth and claws. Mr. 
Cochrane's kindly remembrance of his whilom comrade led 
him not many years ago to attempt writing the biography 
of Sam Patch, and it is upon the facts then collected we 
rely for all we know of his antecedents. 

Samuel Patch was born in Rhode Island, somewhere 
about 1807, and his name was Patch, not Patchin, as has 
been supposed. The date of his arrival at Paterson, N. J., 
is unknown, but it is said he came in company with an 
Englishman by the name of Ent whistle ; that he had once 
been a sailor, and became a respectable cotton spinner at 
the Hamilton Mills, where he was a good workman and a 
popular fellow, "probably not averse to taking a glass of 
toddy occasionally." His mother was a widow of good rep- 
utation and much attached to Sam, who was her main stay 
and support. It was about 1827 that he was seized with 
the jumping mania, or manifested the same to the public. 
A bridge had been built at Paterson, — a "Chasm Bridge" 
across the Passaic, — a great piece of engineering. Sam 
declared so stoutly that he would jump therefrom he was 
put under arrest ; but, nothing discouraged, he kept his 
word, and made his iirst wonderful leap from the rocks at 
the foot of the bridge on the southwestern side of the chasm. 
After that he jumped the second time from the bridge, some 
eighty or ninety feet, and arose from the waters of the Pas- 
saic the hero of the day. He went about the country jump- 
ing from yard-arms and bowsprits, diving from the dizzy 
heights of topmasts, until attracted to Niagara Falls in 
1829, with the crowd who went thither to see the con- 
demned brig Michigan, and its crew of living animals, go 
over the cataract. He jumped from a shelving rock mid- 
way between the highest point of Goat Island and the water, 
more than half the height of the Falls ; and his name rang 
through the land with plaudits that made Rochester very 
glad, even triumphant ; for was he not going to make his 



1 86 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

second jump from her Genesee Falls the week following, 
his first, on his way to Niagara, having failed to thrill the 
whole universe, as his second could not fail to do ? 

Mr. Cochrane made Sam's acquaintance when he was on 
his way to Niagara, and when his jumping the Falls was 
but a small part of the entertainment afforded his boy ad- 
mirer. Sam gave mine hosts of the Rochester Recess a 
genuine fright early one morning by jumping from Fitz- 
hugh Street Bridge, and then swimming under the water to 
a hiding-place. They had given him up as drowned, when 
he called out merrily to them, bobbing up from behind a 
boat. At early daybreak of another morning he called the 
boy he had such a marked liking for, asking him to bring 
hammer and nails, and they would go down the river. Off 
they trudged, and, once below the Falls, Sam made a kind 
of raft, and pushed out with a pole to measure the depth 
where he was to land from above. He seemed perfectly 
satisfied with his soundings, and the next morning early 
Joe was called again for another trip to the Falls, long be- 
fore the town was astir. This time Sam led him to the 
point from which the jump was to be made, and began tak- 
ing off his clothing in the most unconcerned manner, hand- 
ing his bull's-eye watch to the boy for safe-keeping. He 
was going to practice a bit, that was all. " Wait until I get 
where I can see you," begged the boy, making off as fast as 
possible. He had barely time to get a good position when 
Sam shot down the height and disappeared. The boy stood 
paralyzed with fear, believing himself to be the solitary 
spectator of a day-dawn suicide. When he could use his 
legs, he was doing so to some purpose, but Sam's voice 
sang out with the roar of the Falls, " Say, boy, where are 
you going with my watch .? " and there he was, frolicking 
like a dolphin. 

If his first public leap brought thousands to the banks of 
the Genesee, his second tripled the number. His leaping 
the first time had been thought nothing in comparison to 
seeing him emerge from the water, when the crowd re- 
ceived him with open arms, and almost carried him up the 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 8/ 

bank. Some say they actually did. Others remember, or 
think they do, that after Sam jumped, he took his poor 
whining, begging bear and threw him far out over the Cata- 
ract, and that the bear swam round and round in the river 
below, and seeming likely to drown, Sam leaped the sec- 
ond time and rescued him. Had there been a humane so- 
ciety in those days what had they done in such case ? 

Upon his return from Niagara the following notice ap- 
peared in the Rochester papers : — 

HIGHER YET! 

SAM'S LAST JUMP! 

" SOME THINGS CAN BE DONE AS WELL 
AS OTHERS." 

THERE IS NO MISTAKE IN 

OF THE TRUTH OF THIS HE WILL ENDEAVOR 
to convince the good people of Rochester, and its 
vicinity, next l-'RIDAY, Nov. 13, at 2 o'clock, P. M. Be- 
ing determined to "astonish the natives'" of the West 
before he returns to the Jarsey's, he will have a scaffold 
Twenty-Five Feet in height erected on the brink of the 
Genesee Falls, in this village, from which he will fearless- 
ly leap into the abyss below — a distance of One Hundred 
and Tiventy-Five Feet. 

SAM'S BEAR, (at 3 o'clock precisely) will make the 
same jump and follow his master, thus showing, conclu- 
sively, that " Some Things can be done as Well as Oth- 
ers." Moreover, Sam hopes that all the good people who 
attend this astonishing exhibition, will contribute some- 
thing towards remunerating him for the seemingly haz- 
ardous experiment. novi2 

No country road was too muddy for travel that Novem- 
ber day if it led to the banks of the Genesee, and few over- 
worked farmers were too busy to forego the wonderful 
spectacle, or to suffer their households so to do. Special 
schooners ran from Canada and Oswego. All Buffalo, Can- 
andaigua, and Batavia, were in our streets. It was a raw 
November day, and by noon a shivering crowd filled every 
available place along the river bank To the boy Cochrane 
it was given to watch Sam closely that day, and see he did 
not get the drop too much. Mr. Cochrane resents the com- 



1 88 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

mon Story that Sam was a sot. There were few strictly 
temperate men in those days, and total abstinence was 
hardly to be looked for in a strolling jumper, but that he 
was a hard drinker, or even drunk upon the day of his fatal 
leap, Mr. Cochrane stoutly denies. Because of the cold, 
Sam's friends decided that a glass of brandy was quite in 
order before he went to the river, and Joe offered the same, 
which Sam thanked him for and tossed off in his easygoing 
way. William Cochrane thereupon brought out his white 
trousers, a part of his band uniform, and prevailed upon 
Sam to draw them over his woolen pair for extra warmth. 
John O'Donohue contributed the black silk handkerchief 
which Sam tied around his waist. A light woolen jacket 
and skull-cap completed his costume. " I was close by his 
side," says Mr. Cochrane, "all the way to the Falls, and if 
he had been drunk should have known it. He said little, 
but that in a light-hearted fashion. He climbed up the 
pole to his platform hand over hand." The memory of his 
boy comrade enables me to give the first report of Sam's 
address to the breathless multitude, who, for shivering in 
the cold spray of the Falls, caught very little of it. They 
were all undergoing a nervous strain, which developed it- 
self in various ways when the leap was made : one well- 
known citizen biting off the end of his thumb ; an old lady 
calling out in a shrill, querulous voice, " If there 's any- 
thing in dreams, that man is dead ! " Sam's declamation 
was as follows : — 

" Napoleon was a great man and a great general. He 
conquered armies and he conquered nations. But he 
could n't jump the Genesee Falls. Wellington was a great 
man and a great soldier. He conquered armies and he 
conquered nations, and he conquered Napoleon, but he 
could n't jump the Genesee Falls. That was left for me to 
do, and I can do it and will ! " 

His descent was so unUke that of the previous occasion, 
when he shot like an arrow from a bow, that almost every 
one in the great concourse of horrified spectators was posi- 
tive from the moment of his disappearance that he was 



A DECADE RFEMORABLE. 1 89 

dead. There was a look on the faces of those who turned 
away from the bank not easily forgotten. " Such a pros- 
tration of feeling took effect on the spectators," wrote 
Lyman B. Langvvorthy, " that in less than five minutes 
almost every one had fled from the locality, silent, sober, 
and melancholy." 

Search was at once made for the missing man, whose 
bear, could he have spoken, might have expressed joy at 
release from his part of the exhibition. The torches of 
Joab Brittain's yawl boat lit up the river all night, and there 
was a new voice in the Cataract for the hundreds of sleep- 
less, self-accusing souls, who for weeks did not give up the 
hope that the man was in hiding, and would yet restore 
their peace by his appearance. A rumor gained credence 
that he had been seen on the street. One man testified 
positively that he had met the veritable Sam in a neighbor- 
ing village, and that he would make an address from the 
balcony of the Eagle Tavern on a specified day. Credulous 
and incredulous turned out, but nothing more was seen of 
him until the next St. Patrick's Day, when his body was 
found in a cake of ice near the mouth of the river, identi- 
fied by Cochrane's pantaloons and O'Donohue's handker- 
chief. The remains were buried in the graveyard at 
Charlotte. Not long after a sad-faced little woman arrived 
in the city, looking for the boy comrade of her son, Sam 
Patch. She visited Sam's grave, wept over it, and John 
Allen gave her free passage home on one of his line boats. 
The considerable sum of money collected before the leap it 
is harder to account for than the bear. The fate of Bruin 
was undoubtedly a contribution to the manufacture of 
" Sears' Genuine Bear's Grease," famous at the time, Mr. 
Sears dealing largely in bears, having frequently as many 
as six in his pen on State Street. 

It was Sam's ambition to jump from London Bridge. 
He had just signed an agreement with the captain of a fast 
sailing packet to Liverpool to make a voyage with him in 
the spring, and jump from the yard-arm every fair day, — 
an original attraction for securing passengers. Mr. Coch- 



I go ROCHESTER: A STORY ITISTORTCAL. 

rane is firm in the conviction that Sam attempted to swim 
back under the Cataract, and so became entangled in the 
great tree which was there for many years after, and is said 
to be to-day. 

Sam Patch filled the newspapers for months after his 
fatal leap, and the dreams of not a few of his spectators as 
well. Betting on his reappearance ran high at the Corners 
for weeks afterwards. Poems were written ascribing to 
him as heroism what we of to-day call by a different name ; 
but that it was an honest jump, and the only thing of the 
kind on record, we cannot deny. Monuments have been 
erected for far less deserving contributors to a city's fame 
than Samuel Patch was to ours. 

We have had acrobats performing wonderful feats above 
our Falls since then, but Sam Patch has a niche of fame to 
himself that no other daring aspirant can share. Sam Scott 
must have been stimulated by him to leave the humble 
calling of a bar-tender, which he followed in this city in the 
Recess under Starr's music store about 1837, for Sam Scott 
became a famous jumper in London, diving from the top of 
Waterloo Bridge, adding to the sensational features of the 
same an appearance of having hanged himself, which spec- 
tacle the Londoners enjoyed until one winter's day in 1841, 
when the Rochester jumper hanged himself for a British 
crowd in good earnest. 

Among the many tributes in the leading journals of the 
day to the memory of Sam Patch, and they were not all 
in a complimentary vein, the following, from the " United 
States Gazette," is a fair specimen : — 

"Go then, say we to the sacristan of the temple of Fame, 
clear the niche, and place the pedestal for Patch, and let 
the priest who ministers to immortality make it the pane- 
gyric of Sam that his ambition was without bloodshed, and 
his patriotism was pure, for he fell in his country's Falls." 

None of the many poetical tributes called forth by Sam's 
tragical death have found place in permanent literature. 
The following extracts from a contribution to the "Crafts- 
man," December i, 1829, is a fair sample of the style of 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. I91 

writing much admired in the days of L. E. L., the Annuals, 
and Mrs. Sigourney : — 

" November's chill north wind blew piercing and keenly ; 

In foam fell the torrent that broke on the cliff ; 

And down the deep ravine gazed thousands serenely, 

Who crowned its high banks with beauty and life. 

******* 

" Some ready tongue ever the tale shall deliver, 

And point to the spot where he gasped his last breath; 
And the cataract pouring a winding sheet o'er him, 
For ages shall tell how it wrapped him in death." 

THE CHOLERA. 
1832. 

The summer of 1831 was gloomy enough with the reports 
of the terrible ravages of Asiatic cholera in Europe. That 
it was marching steadily upon our shores no one could 
doubt ; and the announcement in June, 1832, that it had 
broken out in Quebec, speedily followed by news of its ap- 
pearance in Montreal, New York, and Albany, was hardly in 
advance of the first case in Rochester, June 22, in a house 
on South St. Paul Street, near the canal. The plague was 
indeed in our midst. During the months of July and Au- 
gust business and travel was almost entirely suspended. 
The seemingly vigorous in the morning were carried to 
their graves before night. Our physicians were heroically 
contending with a disease of which they had little knowl- 
edge, and the experience of European physicians, if availa- 
ble, was discouraging. Camphor was the great remedy, the 
price advancing from thirty cents a pound to several dol- 
lars. Brandy and calomel were freely administered. Nat- 
urally, the poor were the greatest sufferers, and many died 
who might have been saved with proper care. 

One man there was, still living among us, whose blessed 
work that summer in the wretched homes of the poor lights 
up the scene of misery and death. There was no spot too 
loathsome for the ministry of Ashbel W. Riley, — no corpse 
too repulsive for his lifting into the coffin and aiding in 
bearing to the dead cart, dismally familiar on the streets. 



192 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

He was the solitary watcher by many a dying bed in 
that terrible summer of 1832, when his tall form might be 
seen seeking out the otherwise pitifully lost from human 
assistance and consolation. It was truly a calamitous sea- 
son when, in a population of between ten and twelve thou- 
sand, nearly five hundred died within two months of the 
Asiatic cholera. A reminiscence of Mrs. King is of inter- 
est here : " When the disease commenced its ravages we 
thought the dead must be carefully dressed for the grave. 
The second person who died was a woman on our street. 
No one of her acquaintance was willing to lay her out. 
Mrs. Frederick Starr, my mother, and I carefully dressed 
her long hair, washed her and robed her for the grave. 
Before we finished, her countenance became dark from de- 
composition. I think this was the last person during the 
whole of our season of cholera who was so particularly pre- 
pared for burial. The husband of this woman, who was ap- 
parently well at the time, was a corpse in six hours after." 

A temporary hospital was built on the bank of the Erie 
Canal in the western part of the city for the accommoda- 
tion of those stricken with cholera while traveling. It was 
often full to overflowing, the dead and the dying lying 
ujDon the straw pallets, and even upon the ground. 

There were outbreaks of cholera in the city for several 
summers after, but not until 1849 ^^"^^ ^^ scourge anything 
like that of 1832. That summer, when we were fortunate 
in having the Hon. Levi A. Ward for our mayor, will be 
long remembered. In the summer of 1852 there was an 
alarming prevalence of cholera between the months of July 
and September, our German population suffering severely, 
and certain localities of the city, particularly State Street 
in Frankford, and Chestnut Street on the east side. Dr. 
Treat and Moses B. Seward were among the victims. 

The cholera had hardly disappeared in 1832 when there 
was an outbreak of the small-pox, which spread rapidly over 
the city, causing the wildest excitement. It had been 
brought to the city by a resident of a neighboring village, 
who had been suffered to lie in his chamber on South So- 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 1 93 

phia Street with the whidovvs open, the neglect of the 
authorities, who had been notified of the case, being ex- 
cused on the plea that they were completely worn out with 
the demands of the cholera. Then followed the evils 
attendant upon vaccination with impure vaccine and suffer- 
ing from lack of nurses. Truly, the year 1832 was as dis- 
mal as any in our history. 

The deaths from cholera in New York city between the 
4th of July and the ist of October were over three thou- 
sand. A paper by Dr. John Francis, written upon the 
scourge, is still considered a valuable contribution to med- 
ical science. 

THE CITY OF ROCHESTER. 
1834. 

" The earliest beginnings," says Heine, " explain the lat- 
est phenomena." The beginnings of Rochester, even in the 
depressing days before 1818, explain how, in less than fifty 
years after the building of Allan's mill, and a little more 
than twenty after the sale of Colonel Rochester's lots, 
Rochester was enrolled among the important cities of the 
Empire State, "with the officers, powers, and duties 
thereof." The original act, whereby the city of Rochester 
was incorporated April 28, 1834, may be interesting read- 
ing to many among us, but in the " statisticks " of the 
Directory, proudly proclaiming for the first time its new 
title of " The City of Rochester," we find much of general 
interest. If the fact, important to us, of Rochester's birth- 
year as a city had been thought worthy of record in the 
chronological tables of the principal events of the world's 
history, we should find it contemporaneous with the death 
of La Fayette, the emancipation of slaves in the British 
Colonies, the first issue of the Oxford "Tracts for the 
Times," and the first volume of Bancroft's " History of the 
United States." Andrew Jackson was President, and Mar- 
tin Van Buren the heir-apparent. William L. Marcy was 
governor, and the uppermost topic was the riots in New 
13 



194 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

York in opposition to the Anti-Slavery movement. It was 
in the summer of 1834 that the houses of Arthur and 
Lewis Tappan were sacked by a mob, and the parsonage of 
Dr. Cox, the father of the present Bishop of Western New 
York, was attacked, while the troops called out to suppress 
the disturbance were assailed with stones and offensive 
missiles. William Lloyd Garrison was, perhaps, the most 
universally detested man in the country ; and the colored 
churches and schools in many of our leading cities were 
nearly, if not quite, destroyed by the lawlessness of the 
element bound to eradicate Abolitionists and Abolitionism. 
So much for the political atmosphere of the country when 
Rochester became one of the cities of the Empire State. 

Now for a few statistics, etc., from the Directory of 1834: 

Population, 12,252. 

Capital invested in mills and flouring machinery, $290,000. 

Amount paid for wheat, barrels, etc., $1,413,000. 

Barrels of flour manufactured during the year, 300,000. 

Amount of merchandise sold during 1833, $1,500,000 to 
$2,000,000. 

Value of lumber manufactured and purchased for ship- 
ment and home consumption during 1833, $51,740. 

Value of provisions and ashes, $183,097. 

The citizens of Rochester own stock in the transporta- 
tion lines on the Erie Canal, to the amount of $74,000; 
expending during the last year in the prosecution of their 
business $750,033.48, and requiring a capital of $136,000 to 
prosecute the same. 

There has been exported from the port of Genesee within 
the last year, to Canada and coast-wise, produce, manufac- 
tured articles, merchandise, and stock, to the amount of 
$807,510. 

About one sixth of all the canal tolls which the State 
receives is paid at Rochester. 

Amount of flour manufactured during the year 1826, 
150,169 barrels, there being an increase since that time of 
nearly one half. 

Rochester contains 1,300 houses, besides public buildings. 




THIRD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Main Street, between St. Paul and Stone Streets. 
Built about 1835. Burned 1858. 




FIRST METHODIST CHAPEL. 

Corner Buffalo and Fitzhugh Streets 
Built, 1835-6. Taken down, 1S5-. 



From O'Reilly, iSj8. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 195 

Churches : Four Presbyterian, one German Lutheran, two 
Episcopal, one Methodist, two Roman CathoHck, two Baptist, 
one Friends and one Orthodox Friends' meeting-houses. 

A court-house, jail, market, two banks, and a museum. 

The post-office was established in 181 2. The receipts of 
the first quarter amounted to $3.42, of the last quarter of 
1826 were $1,718.44, and of the quarter ending April, 1834, 
;^3,ooo.2i. 

There were nine " Principal Publick Houses," of which 
the Clinton Hotel alone remaineth unto this day. 

There were ten newspapers published in the city, viz. : — 

The Rochester Republican, weekly. 

The Rochester Daily Advertiser, daily. 

The Rochester Daily Democrat, daily. 

Monroe Democrat, weekly. 

Rochester Gem, semi-monthly. 

The Genesee Farmer, weekly. 

Goodsell's Genesee Farmer, weekly. 

The Rights of Man, semi-monthly. 

The Botanist, semi-monthly. 

The Liberal Advocate, semi-monthly. 

Two banks had we : — 

The Bank of Rochester. 

The Bank of Monroe. 

The Bank of Rochester was incorporated in 1824. Capi- 
tal, $250,000. F. Bushnell, President; James Seymour, 
Cashier ; A. H. McKinstry, Teller ; F. D. Bowman, Dis- 
count Clerk; D. Scoville, Book-keeper. Directors: L. Ward, 
Jr., J. Seymour, T. H. Rochester, J. Child, J. Graves, L. 
Brooks, F. Bushnell, E. Peck, Wm. Pitkin, S. O. Smith, J. 
Wadsworth, C. M. Lee, G. H. Mumford. 

The Bank of Monroe. Incorporated, 1829. Capital, $300,- 
000. A. M. Schermerhorn, President; J. T. Talman, Cash- 
ier ; J. C. Frink, Teller ; J. Andrews, Discount Clerk ; M. 
Brown, Jr., Book-keeper. Directors: H. Dwight, J. Greig, 
H. B. Gibson, A. Duncan, J. K. Guernsey, F. M. Haight, 
A, M. Schermerhorn, J. Gould, J. K. Livingston, E. Ely, E. 
Clark, E. F. Smith, Wm. Brewster. 



196 ROCHESTER. A STORY HISTORICAL. 

The traveling facilities were superior. Stages left Roch- 
ester for Albany by two routes ; one daily, the other twice 
a day. The same for Buffalo, one by the Ridge Road and 
Niagara Falls. There were stages for the Genesee Valley, 
and a new river steamboat as well ; while the packet boats 
left Rochester every morning and evening for Schenectady, 
and for Buffalo every morning. There were five steamboats 
on the lake, touching ten times a week at the port of Gene- 
see, and the Rochester railroad cars left for Carthage nearly 
every hour of the day. 

The comments of the old Rochesterian, when he runs his 
finger slowly down the names in this directory, are an epit- 
ome of biography and history, — a volume by itself. Some 
of the names puzzle us a little. There is Ira Armour, bota- 
nist. Tow Path. We commend that mystery to the students 
of our Society of Natural Sciences. W. C. Bloss, agent for 
"The Rights of Man," may be found at 143 Main Street; 
Silas Boyden, soldier, is at the Rendezvous, Fitzhugh Street; 
and Lewis Brooks, Alderman, First Ward, boards at the 
Arcade House, etc. Moses Hall, pensioner, is at 171 Main 
Street ; Dr. Orrin E. Gibbs lives on " Main Street contin- 
ued ; " Alexander Hamilton, fisherman, may be found on 
Shaw's Island ; and Paul Hammond, invalid, on the Tow 
Path. Not a few names have " Pittsford State Road " 
appended, and Jesse Hawley, "farmer," lives on Sophia 
Street ; Lindley M. Moore, farmer, is at 1 19 State Street ; 
and Lyman Munger, another farmer, " on the river. South 
St. Paul." Nehemiah Osburn, carpenter, h. ji6 Main 
Street ; Darius Perrin, hatter, h. Ford Street ; Mortimer 
Y. Reynolds, clerk, Washington Line Ofnce ; and Delos 
Wentworth, law student, are among the interesting entries. 

The government of the village was conducted by five 
trustees, and among the police ordinances of said trustees 
we find the following : — 

" Householders must sweep and clean the sidewalks, op- 
posite their dwellings, every Saturday, from the first day of 
April to the first day of November. Fine for each neg- 
lect, ^i.oo. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 197 

" It is the duty of the president, trustees, or firewardens, 
to remove idle and disobedient persons from fires. Fine 
for disobedience to their orders, ^5.00. Such persons may 
also be put into custody till after the extinguishment of the 
fire. 

" No nine-pin alley to be kept. Fine per day, $5.00. 

"Masters of Canal boats, for suffering any horn or buo-le 
to be blown within the village on the Sabbath. Fine, 

Rochester, in 1834, had two Fire Companies and one 
Hook and Ladder Company, but fire-buckets were kept in 
each house, to be produced at fires, when the owners were 
to obey the orders of the chief engineer. " Fine for diso- 
bedience, $5.00." 

Now let us take a look at the old newspaper file preserved 
in the Athenaeum, for in no other way can we get so clear 
an insight into the life of Rochester in the year when it was 
incorporated as a city. In the issue of the " Daily Demo- 
crat " for January i, 1834, we find a long address to the 
Fraternity of Masons in the State of New York, signed by 
the leading members of the order here, stating their rea- 
son for returning their charters, disposing of their funds 
on hand, and for letting the institution "expire in the arms 
of its members." Signed by Erasmus F. Smith, William 
B. Knox, Jonathan Kingsley, Richard Gorsline, Jared N. 
Stebbins, Elijah F. Smith, William Neafus, Michael Loder, 
J. L. Munroe, E. R. Everest, W. P. Stanton, Wm. Billing- 
hurst, Jehiel Barnard, Henry Scrantom, Robert Wilson, E. 
W. Scrantom, Hamlet Scrantom, Ezra Strong, Ephraim 
Strong, Eleazer Bush, Jacob Graves, Thomas Kempshall, 
L. B. Langworthy, Jesse Hawley, Daniel Graves, Naaman 
Goodsell, Jonathan Child, William Atkinson, Elisha Ely, 
Azel Ensworth, Joseph Strong, Hiram Wright, Benjamin 
Campbell, Thomas Jennings, Willis Kempshall, Bill Colby, 
John Colby, Mortimer Strong. 

The " Democrat " is the Whig organ, and is boiling over 
with indignation at the crimes of the Albany Regency, the 
arrogance of the Emperor Jackson, and the danger to the 



IqS ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

public of " that great moneyed monster, the United States 
Bank." " The Canal must be rebuilt," is one of its key- 
notes. Among the local matters interesting to us of to-day, 
who have read the testimony of the Old Boys concerning 
Mr. Josiah Perry, are the letters congratulating the citizens 
of Rochester upon having gained his services at the Insti- 
tute. " I am sure his presence among us will be felt," 
writes the Rev. J. A. Bolles. " He has solid talent," says 
the Rev. B. H. Hickox, little dreaming how gray-headed 
men in 1884 and after would smile at those certificates. 

As early as April we read in the " Democrat " that it is 
to be hoped the Regency will postpone their selection of a 
Mayor for Rochester " until we get a City Charter. We 
think they will find the people of Rochester less willing to 
be ridden by eastern despots than the citizens of Buffalo 
are," etc. 

April 21, 1834, brings the following: "By the Albany 
'Evening Journal,' received this morning, on the 17th inst. 
the Senate passed the Bill from the Assembly to incorpo- 
rate the City of Rochester, with the odious amendment re- 
quiring the Justices to be appointed by the Aldermen. It 
will now be seen whether the Assembly men from this 
county will consent to a charter on no better conditions 
than it might have been had two years ago. Whether they 
will sanction the Van Buren doctrine, — the further this 
power can be removed from the people the better." All 
true citizens are called upon to attend the Meeting at the 
Court-House that evening. 

" The First City Election will be held the first Monday 
in June." Whigs are notified of the schemes of the Tories. 
"Whiskey runs like water in Dublin." It is devoutly 
hoped by the Whigs, that after this important election 
Rochester can truthfully say, "We have no pestilence, al- 
though we once had Jacksonianism and Cholera." 

Many of us who never read a modern Election Notice 
will be interested in the first one of the City of Roches- 
ter :— 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 



CITY ELECTION NOTICE. 



199 



Notice is hereby given, that the First Annual Election 
of the City of Rochester will be held on the first Monday 
of June next, to commence at nine o'clock of the forenoon 
of that day, at the places in the several wards of the city 
hereinafter respectively designated ; that the officers to be 
chosen at the said election are three supervisors for the 
said city, to be elected by the electors of the several wards, 
and one alderman, one assistant alderman, one assessor, 
one constable, for each ward, to be elected by the electors 
of said ward respectively. 

That the persons hereinafter named as inspectors of elec- 
tion for their respective wards are duly appointed such in- 
spectors, and the person first named in the order of appoint- 
ment is to be the chairman of the Board thereof. 

First Ward. Election to be held at the Mansion House, 
on State Street. Lyman B. Langworthy, Robert McCul- 
lum, Harmon Taylor, Inspectors. 

Second Ward. Election to be held at the Tavern now 
kept by G. Allen, corner State and Brown Streets. Harvey 
Tryon, Ephraim Gilbert, Sylvester H. Packard, Inspec- 
tors. 

Third Ward. Election to be held at the Rochester 
House, corner Exchange and Spring Streets. Isaac Hill, 
Daniel Loomis, Henry E. Rochester, Inspectors. 

Fourth Ward. Election to be held at the Genesee House, 
corner St. Paul and Court Streets. George A. Tiffany, 
Anson House, William Atkinson, Inspectors. 

Fifth Ward. Election to be held at Mrs. Blossom's Tav- 
ern, on Main Street. Jacob Graves, W. H. Ward, E. Smith 
Lee, Inspectors. 

By order of the Board of Trustees of the village of Roch- 
ester. May 20, 1834. 

E. F. Marshall, President. 

Isaac R. Elwood, Clerk. 

Of course there is an abundance of ward meetings follow- 



• 200 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

inij; this notice. " The Tories must not get a foothold in 
the new city of Rochester," cry the Whigs, The press 
contains extracts from the city charter. The Whigs gain 
the victory, and the aldermen and assistant aldermen meet 
June 9th at the Court-House and elect our first Mayor, 
Jonathan Child. 

The Board of City Officers was as follows : — 

Jonathan Child, Mayor. 
Isaac Hills, Recorder. 

Aldermen. Assistant Aldermen. 

First Ward. Lewis Brooks. John Jones. 

Second " Thomas Kempshall. Elijah F. Smith. 

Third " Frederick F. Backus Jacob Thorn. 

Fourth " Ashbel W. Riley. Lansing B Swan. 

Fifth " Jacob Graves. Henry Kennedy. 

John C. Nash, Clerk. 

Vincent Mathews, Attorney & Counselor. 

Ephraim Gilbert, Marshal. 

Elihu Marshall, Treasurer. 

Samuel Works, Superintendent. 

Fire Depai'tment. 

William H. Ward, CJiief Engineer. 
Theodore Chapin, K. H. Van Rensselaer, Assistants. 

Fire Wardens. 

First Ward. John Haywood, Abelard Reynolds. 

Second " John Jones, Willis Kempshall. 

Third " Erasmus D. Smith, Thomas H. Rochester. 

Fourth " Nehemiah Osburn, Obadiah N. Bush. 

Fifth " Daniel Graves, Bill Colby. 

Snpei"visors. 

Erasmus D. Smith, Abraham M. Schermerhorn, 

Horace Hooker. 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 201 

Assessors. 

First Ward. John Haywood. 

Second " Ephraim Gilbert. 

Third " Daniel Loomis. 

Fourth " Horatio N. Curtis. 

Fifth " Orrin E. Gibbs. 

Justices of the Peace. 
Second Ward. Thomas H. Dunning. 
Third " Samuel Miller. 

Fifth " Nathaniel Draper. 

Street Inspectors. 

First Ward. Harmon Taylor. 

Second " Silas Ball. 

Third " Eleazer Tillotson. 

Fourth " John Coutler. 

Fifth " John Gifford. 

School Inspectors. 

G. H. Mumford, E. S. Marsh, Moses Chapin, 

Joseph Edgell, Samuel Tuttle. 

Constables. 

Cornelius Fielding, Joseph Putnam, Isaac Weston, 

Sluman W. Harris, Philander Davis. 

Overseers of the Poor. 
William G. Russell, William C. Smith. 

E. A. Miller, Sealer of Weights & Measures. 
Z. Norton, Sexton West Biirying Grojind. 

This signal victory of the Whig party was duly cele- 
brated upon Brown's Island.^ A national salute of thirteen 
guns at sunrise, and twentv-four at noon. A collation was 
spread "in the bower," and some three thousand people 

^ Between Brown's Race and the river. 



202 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

made merry and listened to no end of speech-making. 
Judge Strong presided, and among the many toasts drank 
were the following : — 

Matthew Brown, Jr. "The City of Rochester. The 
people have erected their banner sacred to the Constitu- 
tion and laws. Patriots will sacrifice every minor consider- 
ation and prejudice to their support." 

Daniel Marsh. "The Charter Election of the City of 
Rochester. A signal triumph of democratic principles over 
arrogant oppression and Jacksonian misrule." 

We find in the same and close following issues of the 
" Democrat " a call for a Whig Young Men's Meeting, 
headed by Henry E. Rochester. 

There is a long report of the " Rochester Western Infant 
School Society," Sarah H. Ford, Secretary, and Chicago is 
one of the missions thereof. 

There is an outbreak of cholera on the Mississippi. A. 
Champion has lost from his office one volume of his Hen- 
ry's Commentary, and wishes it returned. John O'Dono- 
hue is going to Montreal on business in eight or ten days, 
and will attend to any matters intrusted to him while there. 
The display of brute force in the government of Canada is 
severely commented upon. The editor thanks our repre- 
sentative in Congress, the Hon. Frederic Whittlesey, for 
valuable public documents. 

First meeting of Common Council. June lo, 1834, this 
body holds its first meeting in the Court-House, and the 
Mayor, after taking his oath of office, delivers a most admir- 
able address of which the following is an extract : — 

"The rapid progress which our place has made from a 
wilderness to an incorporated city authorizes each of our 
citizens proudly to reflect upon the agency he has had 
in bringing about this great and interesting change. 
Rochester has had little aid in its permanent improvement 
from foreign capital. It has been settled and built for the 
most part by mechanics and merchants, whose capital was 
economy, industry, and perseverance. It is their labor and 
skill which has converted a wilderness into a city, and to 



A DECADE MEMORABLE. 20$ 

them, surely, this must be a day of pride and joy. They 
have founded and reared a city before they had passed the 
meridian of Hfe. . . . The men who felled the forests which 
grew on the spot where we are assembled are to-day sitting 
at the council board of our city . . . Together we have 
struo-o-led through the hardships of our infant settlement, 
and the embarrassment of straitened circumstances ; to- 
gether let us rejoice and be happy in the glorious reward 
that has crowned our labors," 

Jonathan Child, our first mayor, was a representative 
man of whom we may be justly proud, a gentleman of the 
old school, a liberal conservative, the friend of the working 
man, and, above all, the conscientious politician. That he 
should have been chosen for our first mayor is testimony 
in honor of those who made him their choice. Jonathan 
Child was a New Englander of Puritan ancestry, with the 
blood of revolutionary heroes in his veins. He came to 
this part of the country in 1810, from Lyme, New Hamp- 
shire, taught school in Utica, settled in Charlotte, where 
he was merchant and postmaster. In 18 18 he married a 
daughter of Colonel Rochester. To his enterprise and 
sterling integrity our city owes much of her present pros- 
perity, and not a few of the successful business men now 
passing away were indebted to Jonathan Child for their 
first start in life, their mastery of adverse fortune. " Hon- 
est John Allen" was among the laborers on the canal, 
when Jonathan Child discerned the possibihties of the 
Irish boy, his exceptional honesty and industry, and took 
him into his warehouse, and subsequently into his office. 
The history of Masonry in Rochester and the name of Jon- 
athan Child are inseparable. In the stormy times of the 
Morgan abduction his wisdom and impartial judgment were 
the guide of the order. The unselfishness of the man made 
him a safe public leader, — an unselfishness which left him 
comparatively poor in his declining years, considerable as 
had been his fortune in the days of his extensive commer- 
cial enterprise. 

He resigned the office of mayor the year following his 



204 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

election. He could not sign licenses for selling liquors. 
His sturdy honesty and high principle would not admit 
such compromise. It was in perfect harmony with the 
character of the man. He could give up anything but his 
allegiance to duty. That nothing could take from him. 

"As he was closing his eyes in death in October, i860," 
writes his masonic biographer, " he heard of the successful 
election in Pennsylvania which gave assurance of the elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, and then, as if spir- 
itual prescience was illuminating his last moments, he 
thanked God that slavery should die." 

The name of Jonathan Child is all worthy of place be- 
side that of Nathaniel Rochester, — names upon our fairest 
corner-stones of which we shall never be ashamed. 

The Decade Memorable was prolific in germs, or rather 
the development of germs, of contentions concerning boun- 
daries and limitations, which, although making the legal fra- 
ternity to rejoice and prosper, was a severe tax upon many 
an otherwise fair fortune, if not its annihilation. One of 
the causes of these interminable lawsuits, dragging on into 
the forties and fifties, or, if supposed to be ended, breaking 
out again in some unexpected quarter, was strangely enough 
in Colonel Rochester's generosity to his lot buyers. To 
be sure of giving good measure, he would occasionally allow 
a foot of land over, — in other words, throw in the trifle 
that soon ceased to be a trifle, and the very opposite. That 
surplus foot or two was the bone of many a hot contention. 
The mill yard, or immediate surroundings of the old Allan 
Mill, was the source of much litigation. A part of this 
mill yard became Child's Basin, lying back of the lots on 
Exchange Street, and extending northerly to Graves Street, 
wide enough for three or four boats to lie side by side and 
leave passage. There was no end of lawsuits concerning 
the rights of way in this basin, and the closing of it natur- 
ally brought about as many more. The bed of the river 
has been fruitful soil for our lawyers ; and if the river itself 
could assert its rights by any other voice than that of a 
flood, the story of its wrongs and its trespassers would de- 
mand a hcarins: and an advocate. 



THE OLD FILES. 20$ 



XV. 

THE OLD FILES. 
I 820-1 829. 

The old files of our first newspapers give a wonderful 
insight into the pioneer times of Rochesterville. The 
" Union and Advertiser," the early evolution of our very first 
newspaper, has a venerable file, and so has the Rochester 
Athenceum. Unfortunately, neither of these files are com- 
plete, and perhaps it is now impossible, even with this sug- 
gestion, meant for those who are hoarding old newspapers 
unavailable to the public, to make it so. The collection at 
the Athenseum dates back no further than the Rochester 
"Gazette " for May 30, 1820. The " Gazette " was our first 
newspaper, a weekly, and the enterprise of Dauby & Shel- 
don, beginning in 1816. It was afterwards merged in the 
" Republican," and Frederic Whittlesey and Edwin Scran- 
tom were at one time its publishers. The Rochester 
"Telegraph" was our second weekly newspaper. This was 
established by Everard Peck in 1818, and it was upon this 
paper that Thurlow Weed, in 1822, was glad to find work at 
four hundred dollars a year, writing the popular editorials, 
which soon called out for him the " Republican's " epithet 
of " Peck's hired man." Thurlow Weed's tribute to Everard 
Peck in his late Autobiography is a grateful acknowledg- 
ment of indebtedness to one of our most honored citizens, 
whose kindly impulses, rather than prophetic vision, laid 
the foundations of Thurlow Weed's subsequent success. 

In 1827 the "Republican" assumed the name of the 
"Daily Advertiser." It was the first daily paper west of 
New York city, and the business enterprise of Luther 



206 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Tucker and Henry A. Slade, of Jamaica, Long Island. 
Henry O'Reilly was its first editor, a name associated with 
our local movements for years, and with those of the coun- 
try as well. 

We open the file of yellow folio newspapers, twelve inches 
by nineteen, and learn that the terms of the " Gazette " 
were two dollars a year, " Any person may be at liberty 
to discontinue, on paying what may be due on his paper." 
* * * Haywood the Hatter and I3ingham the Tailor head 
the advertisements, the latter announcing that " Military 
Dresses" and "Ladies' Habits" are made by him in the 
most fashionable style. * * * " One Cent Reward " is of- 
fered for a runaway apprentice ; and Dr. Vought, who, by 
the by, took out the first patent in Rochesterville, and that 
for a patent medicine, informs the citizens that he has gen- 
uine vaccine matter, and emphasizes the great necessity of 
their using the same. * * * There is a column and a half 
of selected poetry, the most of it from Lord Byron, and 
what we should call a very prosy inventory of the Bona- 
parte family. * * * Much space is given to Foreign News. 
The subject of internal navigation is uppermost. Among 
Home Topics, Clinton has been elected, and there is re- 
joicing in his party ; and A. Reynolds, the Postmaster, 
gives notice that the western mail will close on Mondays, 
Wednesdays, and Fridays, at lo o'clock, a. m., and the east- 
ern mail will close on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, 
at 10 o'clock, A. M. 

We must pass more rapidly over these interesting files, 
noting only the most notable things. 

July 4, 1820, was celebrated "with hilarity." A proces- 
sion was formed at Dr. Ensworth's tavern, corner Buffalo 
and Carroll, now State, Street. To the church it marched, 
the band playing its best. There A. Sampson was the 
orator. Then back to Dr. Ensworth's to a good dinner, 
Colonel Rochester presiding, assisted by Dr. Matthew 
Brown. Among the many toasts was the following: '^ TJie 
Erie Canal, opening an intercourse between the interior 
and the extreme parts of the United States, it will assimi- 



THE OLD FILES. 20/ 

late conflicting interests, impart energy and give durability 
to the national compact." * * * 

Jacob Gould offers " i,ooo pair Coarse Shoes ivarrantcd 
to be of the first quality." * * * 

George the Fourth is making splendid preparations for 
his coronation, the ceremony to cost the people five millions 
of dollars. * * * 

August 20, 1820. A notice of the celebration of the four 
Sunday-schools of the village, some two hundred scholars, 
" whose neat attire and smiling faces bespoke the noble 
workings of young ambition in their ductile minds." 

The "Gazette" is anti-Clintonian, and growls menacingly 
at the Clintonians, "a party which has been seeking by 
Machiavelian cunning to destroy its merited popularity," 
but Queen Caroline is given more space than home politics, 
furious as the storm is growing. 

"This No. ends the quarter," is the heading of S. B. 
Bartlett's unique advertisement, for he is the post-rider of 
Rochesterville, and publicly addresses his "good custom- 
ers " as follows : — 

"Though slow of speech, 
Yet quick to find 
The balance due — 
Which is behind." 

OLD ACCOUNTS AND NOTES. 

" To all concerned this timely note I send, 
Bring in your pay and help a needy friend ; 
Bring what you have, a little cash will do, 
He who pays I '11 discharge, who fails, / 7/ sueP 

There must have been an appetite for anything con- 
cerning Bonaparte and Queen Caroline in those days, so 
laden is the "Gazette" with what concerns them. We dis- 
cover that the people of Rochesterville were by no means 
to be satisfied with news limited to Genesee County, or 
even the State of New York. We may be pardoned for 
regretting that the " Locals " were so sparse, the " Person- 
als "a thing of the gossiping future. The spice of these 
old papers is not in their weighty foreign clippings, nor 



208 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

their editorial wars, but in the advertisements, the seeming 
inadvertences of the news purveyor. " A Girl " is wanted 
to do the work of a small family in the village, and there 
is significance in the repetition of the advertisement for 
several weeks. * * * Tickets are for sale in " Literature 
Lottery No. 4," at the post-office, A. Reynolds, P. M. 

* * * The Duke of Wellington is pelted with mud and 
oyster shells by the populace on the side of Queen Caro- 
line. * * * W. Cobb, President, calls a meeting of the 
Rochester Mechanics' Society. * * * Clinton is called by 
the Federalists "a crack-brained political wanderer," and 
William Atkinson wants 1,000 Flour Barrels. * * * Mercy 
Hill's name, in the " List of Letters uncalled for," interests 
us, as four are waiting for her, week after week. How ac- 
count for our desire to know who she was, and what those 
four postponed letters could have been about ? * * * Epi. 
grams called out by Queen Caroline's Trial are afloat : — 

" How sadly her radical friends it would shock, 
To hear that the Queen would be brought to the block ! 
But when Alderman Wood at her levees is seen, 
They smile at the block being brought to the Queen." 

* * * Mr. Adams gives a Concert of Sacred Music "at the 
Meeting-House " on a Sunday evening. " The evening- 
was selected to accommodate the citizens." Here is the 
notice. 

"CONCERT. 

"A Concert of Vocal Music will be given at the Meeting- 
House in this village, on Sunday Evening the 29th inst., 
consisting of Anthems, Solos. Duetts, Choruses, etc., etc. 
The Piano Forte is expected to accompany the music. 
Performance to commence at 6 o'clock. Doors closed at 
half past 7. gg^ Tickets 25 cts., to be had at the Book- 
store of E. Peck & Co." 

The assurance respecting the piano-forte, and the closing 
of the doors at the beginning of the concert, contains a 
suggestion for musical directors of a later day. * * * 

"Judges, Lawyers, and Divines," holds forth an adver- 
tisement of Backus, the Druggist, " when laboring in their 



THE OLD FILES. 209 

vocation, have acknowledged the refreshing quaUties both 
to the mind and body " of an Aromatic Snuff, a " Stimulus 
for the Nose," — a Cordial for the Olfactory Nerves, — a 
Sternatory fashionable and fragrant, which may be had at 
said Backus' Druggist Store, together with a Superior 
Corn Salve, and Toothache Drop. 

The post-rider is out with another notice, this time in 
plain prose. He must be paid, " or my occupation is gone. 
All who have taken the ' Gazette,' and are indebted, must 
pay at once." 

We begin to comment upon the prevalent disposition of 
the cows of the country to stray or suffer themselves to be 
stolen, thus insuring to every issue of the paper one notice 
at least of bovine itineracy. * * * Stephen Charles opens 
" A New Store," and his catalogue of tempting wares 
reaches from Cogniac and Spanish Brandy to " Fifty Boxes 
assorted Window Glass." * * * Jacob Gould receives 200 
prs. cowhide boots. * * * William Pitkin has Crockery 
and Glass Ware as well as Drugs. * * * Charles Lalliet 
and Madam Lalliet open a School for Dancing and the 
French Language. * * * Under the head of married, we 
find " Jonathan Jacket, youngest son of the celebrated 
chief Red Jacket, to Yee-hah-wee, at the Buffalo Reserva- 
tion." * * * There is an editorial leader devoted to the 
celebration of Christmas at St. Luke's. * * * A Republi- 
can meeting is called of those " friendly to the administra- 
tion of the General Government, and opposed to most of 
the measures of Governor Clinton." Signed N. Rochester, 
S. Melanchton Smith, Joel Wheeler, Jonathan Parish, Jr. 
* * * And here comes the first advertisement of the old 
Museum. " Stowell and Bishop ... at the Eagle Tavern. 
Museum ... 34 Wax Figures as large as life. Two ele- 
gant organs, one playing a variety of music and accompa- 
nied by a chime of bells ; the other a new patent organ 
accompanied with a drum and a triangle. . . . Grand me- 
chanical Panorama, — 36 moving figures, — 20 Elegant 
Views. N. B. They have just added to their Museum a 
representation of the late Duel between Commodore Barron 



2IO 



ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



and Decatur, and their seconds. Admission, 25 cents. 
Children, half price." * * * A responsible person is wanted 
to carry the Oswego mail on horseback. * * * Burrell 
Reed, " Tonsor and Frisseur," has unlocked his barbcr-ows 
instruments . . . and will seize " the fair occasion to at- 
tend the commands of the ladies at their respective resi- 
dences." * * * At Silas O. Smith's Cash Store, the highest 
price is paid for Pot and Pearl Ashes. * * * Among the 
new school-books "just published " is "The Brief Remarker 
on the Ways of Man," dissipating our faith in the brevity 
of its remarks by the length of its explanatory title-page. 
" The Brief Remarker " had a score of valuable recommen- 
dations, and was for sale by J. D. Bemis & Co. * * * H. 
Hooker will exchange Salt for Flax Seed. * * * " Hard 
Times in Missouri, Dull Sale of Negroes." * * * " Mr. 
Henry Bullard of this village has been out Fox Hunting, and 
has received a dangerous wound from the accidental dis- 
charge of his gun." * * * "Fire! The Cooper Shop of Mr. 
James is burned I " but the citizens furnish material for the 
new shop that the joiners put up the very next day. How 
much there is in that item accounting for the marvelous 
prosperity of Rochesterville. 

And here is a wide gap in the Athenaeum files. From 
the "Gazette" of February, 1821, we joass to the Roches- 
ter "Telegraph," No. 38, Vol. 5, Tuesday, March 18, 1823, 
missing the newspaper record of a little more than two 
years. We see at the first glance that Rochesterville has 
been making great strides of progress, and that a fierce 
competition is going on between the rival stage lines, the 
North and the South Roads, the Opposition and the Old 

Line. These North 
Road stages promise to 
leave Auburn at five in 
the morning, and reach 
Rochester at six in the 
""" afternoon. * * * Mar- 

shall has published a New Spelling Book whose 'intrinsick 
worth will promote the interest of education." * * * Bart- 




THE OLD FILES. 211 

lett, the post-rider, has at last sacrificed rhyme for terse- 
ness : " Those who have not paid me or Messrs. E. Peck & 
Co. and taken a receipt, are earnestly requested to pay me 
when I call ; and those who live off the route will please to 
leave the money where the papers are left." * * * Appren- 
tices and cows are still, in increasing numbers, straying about 
the country. The catalogue of " Books at Peck's " reads 
like the inventory of a country parson's library. * * * The 
price of Ashes has fallen ten pounds per ton in Liverpool. 
Advices so received in Albany. And here is a House for 
sale about three miles from the village, its desirability 
chiefly consisting in the fact that it is situated on the Erie 
Canal. Among the new Books at Marshall's we find 
" Memoirs of the Military and Political Life of Napoleon 
Bonaparte, from his origin to his death on the Rock of St. 
Helena." * * * D. D. & J. Swift offer everything in their 
wares from Mull and Book mushns to Connecticut Mess 
Shad. * * * A sick man in a delirium escapes to " the 
woods adjoining the village." * * * R. & H. L. Hall com- 
bine the attractions of a Porter House and a Reading 
Room. * * * Anna 
Knapp keeps '^ Plain 
Bonnets for Friends 




and Methodists." 
* * * July 4th, 1823, 
gave testimony to the 
patriotism of Roches- 
terville. The good people turned out and marched again 
in brave procession to the Court-House Square. " The 
Rev. Mr. Cumming opened with prayer ; " F. Whittlesey 
read the Declaration of Independence ; D. D. Barnard made 
an eloquent oration ; and the Rev. Mr. Penney pronounced 
the benediction. A good dinner was next in order, and 
Dr. L. Ward, Jr., was the President of the same, assisted by 
Jesse Hawley, Elisha B. Strong, Elisha Ely, and A. Samp- 
son. Colonel Rochester regretted he might not be present, 
"on account of age and infirmities," but he contributed the 
following toast : — 




212 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

" The Grand Canal — wonderful work ; ages to come will 
be grateful to the statesmen and patriots who planned and 
made provision for it, and to the agents who superintended 
and executed this stupendous monument of their and our 
glory." * * * New York city has 130,000 inhabitants. * * * 
Ira West's Potash Kettles are warranted to endure sixty 
days' actual use. * * * The Rev. Mr. Thomson, of the Uni~ 
versalist Faith, is expected to preach in the Charity School 
Room, Sunday, August ist, 1823. * * * 
J. Robinson, the Hair Cutter, whose 
pranks and stories did much for the 
promotion of good times at the Four 
Corners, illuminates the " Telegraph " 
with the accompanying cut, which, no 
doubt, resembles the distinguished wag 
as closely as crude wood-cuts usually 
do their subjects. * * * September 9th 
gives us the following news item : " The Aqueduct over 
the Genesee River will be completed at nine o'clock to- 
morrow morning, at which time the workmen employed on 
it will celebrate the event. An address will be delivered 
by one of the workmen. All persons who have been in 
any manner employed upon the Aqueduct are invited to 
attend." How eagerly we search the next week's issue for 
a report of that speech and the name of the orator, but 
the event is unnoted, crowded out by political harangues 

— the laudation of Adams and the bitter denunciation of 
Van Buren. * * * September 30. " It is expected that the 
water will be let in, and the first boat arrive next week " 

— a modest item at the foot of the editorial column. lUit 
the Aqueduct celebration came in good time, October, 1823, 
and among the toasts drank were the following : — 

" By Colonel Rochester. The Aqueduct across the Gen- 
esee River — the most stupendous and strongest work in 
America, and an imperishable monument of the skill and 
industry of the agents who planned and superintended, and 
the mechanics who constructed it. 

" By Myron Holley. The Village of Rochester. Great 



THE OLD FILES. 215 

in her natural advantages, may the towing-rope enable her 
to draw them out in all the forms of public and private 
prosperity." 

And now the " Telegraph " breaks out with the advertis- 
ing of the Packet Boat Companies, each rival line proclaim- 
ing its advantages over all others. The U. S. Mail Line 
assures its patrons that its captains are " all experienced 
and responsible men," reminding us of what we do not re- 
quire to-day of the captains of ocean steamers. "The 
teams are perfectly broken to the Canal. The Boats leave 
Rochester every day at 7 a. m., and passengers will arrive 
at Albany the third day in time to take the steamboats for 
New York. When the Canal is navigable to Brockport, 
the route of the Erie Line will be extended to that place. 
All baggage at the risk of the owner." * * * « ^^ hours 
from Utica ! The shortest trip that has been made be- 
tween Rochester and Utica." We perceive the ville is 
dropping off. * * * There is an Anti-Slavery trend in pub- 
lic sentiment. * * * « Mr. Weed (Thurlow) having deter- 
mined to continue a short time in the village, has offered 
his services to assist in the editorial department of the 
' Telegraph.' " 

" THE GREEK ! THE GREEK ! " 

As the year 1823 draws to its close, Rochester, with the 
rest of the civilized world, is enlisted in the Emancipation 
of Greece from the Turk. The subject crowds out almost 
every other from the little weekly newspaper. There are 
sermons by all the leading clergy " in behalf of the Greeks," 
rousing orations, and fiery outbursts from the Press. A 
large meeting is held at Christopher's Mansion House, 
"for the purpose of adopting measures to afford aid to the 
Greeks," — James K. Guernsey in the Chair, Dr. Levi Ward, 
Secretary, — whereat it is resolved unanimously, with other 
strong resolutions, that subscriptions be received in aid of 
the Greeks, * * * that a Committee be appointed to col- 
lect and receive subscriptions, etc., and that N. Roches- 
ter, Daniel Penfield, James K. Guernsey, Matthew Brown, 
Jr., Timothy Barnard, Elisha B. Strong, Ashley Sampson, 



214 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

E. S. Beach, John Mastick, Enos Pomeroy, Abclard Rey- 
nolds, and Levi Ward, be that Committee. A Ball is given 
for the Greeks, Gen. A. W. Riley, Treasurer fur the same. 
General Riley, and his partner Colonel Bissell, sell a lot on 
the corner of what we now call New Main and Scio Streets, 
for $200, and give the proceeds to the inhabitants of the 
island of Scio, and the street is named in memory of the 
event. The township of Greece is also named at this time, 
as was Chili at another, to commemorate the Chilian strike 
for freedom. $1,500 was soon raised in Monroe County 
alone ; and among the many devices for raising money at a 
time when Ereeholders were calling for two or more fire 
engines, and for "c?/ least two more lamps on Main Street 
Bridge," was the clever one of Daniel Penfield, Esq. He 
gave a very fine, fat ox to the Greek Fund. Said ox, it was 
proclaimed, would be slain for Freedom and sold by the 
pound. Garlanded with evergreens and decorated with rib- 
bons, he was led through the streets, preceded by a band 
of music. Unfortunately for the reader of the old files to- 
day, the Reporter of that did not think it worth while to 
record what everybody knew by the gossip at Christopher's 
or John Robinson's, and so the interesting incidents per- 
taining to the carving of the illustrious ox, the quality of 
the meat, and just who paid twenty-seven cents a pound 
for the choicest portions, may not go down to posterit3^ I 
have even failed utterly in establishing the slightest rela- 
tion between the Ox that died for Greece and the incarna- 
tion of defiance that used to grace our old Market House. 

A STEPPING mill! 

We have heard of many kinds of mills in the city of 
mills, but what is the stepping mill pray tell.-' Is it run by 
the stones whereby " men rise from their dead selves to 
higher things?" February, 1824, a meeting was held "in 
this village, and a committee api)()inted to draft a petition 
to the Legislature for the passage of a law to erect a Step- 
ping Mill in this County. Probably no place in the Union, 
of the size of Rochester, is so much infested with the 



THE OLD FILES. 21$ 

dregs and outcasts of society," — the editor going on to 
make plain this assertion, and the necessity of a change. 
" It is believed a stepping or tread-mill (ah, now we under- 
stand) will fully answer the purpose . . . offenders are 
seldom found a second time in a tread-mill. . . . Machinery 
can be attached to the wheel so that the occupants could 
be made to earn nearly all their expenses." The same 
paper contains the call of The Rochester Vigilant Society 
"for the suppression of crimes and misdemeanors." Not 
long after an advertisement of the society appears of the 
reclaimed stolen property in its possession, but we find no 
record of the carrying out of the Stepping Mill Project. 
* * * Proposals will be received for the building of a school- 
house for the Female Charitable Society. * * * A new 
Waverley Novel is out ! " St. Ronan's Well." Peck has it. 

The first theatre bill found in the old files is that of 
March i6, 1824 : — 

* * * A P\ill Company . . . from the New York and Al- 
bany Theatres ... at Mr. Christopher's. . . . The fash- 
ionable Comedy, " How to die for Love." With a great 
variety of comic songs. " The Exile of Buonaparte " be- 
sides. The whole to conclude with the farce, "The Village 
Lawyer." "Tickets fifty cents, to be had at the Bar. 
Doors open at six . . . front seats reserved for Ladies. 
Two tickets will admit one gentleman and two ladies." 
Who shall say that the histrionic profession of Rochester 
has not done its best to encourage a chivalrous attention 
to the fair sex ? * * * " Have potash kettles," cries out 
some vexed villager, "a standing license to occupy the most 
conspicuous situations in this village .'' " Which, with the 
notice that cattle are roaming over the burying-ground, and 
the succession of advertisements of runaway boys, tempts 
the reader to surmise that there were possibly some disa- 
greeable things to be met with in Rochester in those days 
as well as now. But what are the annoyances of potash ket- 
tles on the sidewalk, or even the growing lack of fire buck- 
ets and ladders, cows in the graveyard, or runaway boys, 
when it has been officially announced that La Fayette 



2l6 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

is coming to America, and will sail over the grand canal, 
and so, of course will stop in Rochester. ICxcry issue of 
the press is full of La Fayette and his doings, subdued by 
the particulars of the death of Lord Byron, and quotations 
from his writings and letters. * * * The basins and 
wharves of the canal are bustling with trade. " Last week 
a boat arrived here from Vermont, loaded with emigrants 
destined to the western forests, having navigated Lake 
Champlain and the Northern Canal, and entered the West- 
ern at Waterford. * * * The immense benefits resulting 
from this internal river are beginning to be realized." * * * 
*'■ The fare from this place to Albany, either by the packet 
boats or in good post coaches, does not exceed $12, board 
and lodging included; making only ^14 to New York. 
The whole expense from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls is 
less than twenty dollars." * * * Green-House plants from 
the Linnrean Garden, Long Island, can be had of S. M. & 
J. S. Smith, the head of our line of Florists, — including 
such names as Ellwanger & Barry, and James Vick. 

New Spelling Books are rife, each boasting its supe- 
riority. * * * The value of the canal to Rochester is em- 
phasized by the statement that a Rochester merchant has a 
contract in New York to furnish 250,000 feet of ship plank, 
and two others have contracts for staves for $25,000. 
Who dreamed of such things ten years before.'' 

Three apple-trees are supposed to represent to all who 

see them above the adver- 
tisement of The Summer 
Garden in Carroll Street, 
three doors below Chris- 
topher's, the bosky shade 
--■ "^ '~ a summer garden is nat- 

urally supposed to furnish. The attractions held out by 
the proprietor no doubt insured him eminent success. 
" The garden will be lighted up in the best style when the 
weather is fair, with frequently a band of music. . . . No 
lady will be permitted to visit the garden except accompa- 
nied by a gentleman, or where there is a family of chil- 




THE OLD FILES. 2.1 J 

dren." ... At the approach of cold weather the garden 
offered to its Patrons Mush, Samp and Milk, and " other 
relishes of all kinds." 

The " Telegraph " flings out its flag for John Ouincy 
Adams for President, and Andrew Jackson for Vice Presi- 
dent, early in the fall of 1824. For Governor, De Witt 
Clinton. " The prospect of a complete political triumph 
is certain. * * * Van Buren is already convicted. ... He 
must suffer what the people in justice shall inflict." * * * 
La Fayette's receptions are fully reported. * * * Thurlow 
Weed is on the Adams Ticket for Member of Assembly. 
* * * "The Albany Regency" is much talked about. 
" Our SjDlendid Museum " adds to its extensive collection 
a figure of General La Fayette. "Those who have seen 
the General will instantly discern a strong resemblance ; 
and those who have not seen him are assured that they see 
in this figure all but life." Lord Byron and Lady have 
increased the enrichments of the Museum ; also " Mrs. 
Smith, who was drowned in December (we are not told 
where), crossing the ferry holding her beautiful twin babes ; " 
also Blue Beard vnvLrdQxmg his wife (never telling us which 
one); also a scripture group representing King Saul and 
the Witch of Endor raising Samuel from the tomb ; also an 
Indian Chief, Black Streak, in the act of scalping, and Gen- 
eral Jackson in the act of shooting Black Streak." All this 
the children of Rochester could enjoy from 9 a. m. to 9 
p. M. for an admittance fee of twelve and a half cents, and 
yet those advertisements of runaway apprentices — "one 
cent reward " — do not diminish. The descriptions of the 
Runaways are interesting. One is spoken of as " naturally 
a great talker and very active." That of course cost him 
his freedom.* * * "The venerable Mr. Monroe resigns the 
Presidential Chair to Mr. Adams." * * * The subject of 
" the formation of a canal along the valley of the Genesee 
and Caneseraga" is agitated. * * * June 7, 1825. The 
community is thrilled by the intelligence that La Fayette is 
approaching Rochester. "It is expected he will arrive at 
King's Basin, in Greece, at 9 o'clock this morning. * * * 



2 1 8. ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

A number of boats will convey a party of ladies and gentle- 
men to the Basin, where they expect to meet the General 
and give him wclconiey . . . He will probably leave the 
village this afternoon. . . . Every one, therefore, man, 
woman, child, or anybody else who wishes to set eyes upon 
the benefactor of his country will be on the alert this morn- 
ing in good season." * * * Lottery advertisements are sig- 
nificantly numerous. * * * Haywood has the La Fayette 
Hat. * * * The Pilot Mail Coach travels by daylight only, 
crossing the canal between Rochester and Albany 13 
times." What more could the lover of the picturesque de- 
mand ? * * * The lecturers on Phrenology are becoming 
processional. * * * We find the l^rigade Orders for Train- 
ing Day, Brig. Gen. Lewis Swift commanding, but never a 
report of the doings of those old Training Days. * * * Here 
is an interesting item, Aug. 30, 1825: "Addison Gardner, 
Esq., of this village, was admitted to the degree of Coun- 
selor at Law, a* the late term of the Supreme Court at 
Utica." 

THE MONROE REPUBLICAN, 

August 2, 1825, Edwin Scrantom, editor, comes next of 
the old files, with a decided resemblance to the " Tele- 
graph." La Fayette is preparing to leave the country, 
and too much space cannot be given to the order of his go- 
ing, even if he does not go at once. *' * * " Stray Sheep," 
seven in number, and one-eared sheep at that, wander into 
an inclosure on the farm of the late Rev. Comfort Wil- 
liams. * * * The Thompsonians, with their lobelia and 
" sweats," are troubling the waters. * * * The Prize List of 
a Grand Lottery is conspicuous, with the name of A. Rey- 
nolds affixed. It is followed by a Post-office Notice signed 
A. Reynolds, P. M. " Letters to be forwarded in the de- 
pending mail must be delivered into the post-office at least 
half an hour before the time fixed for closing it, or they will 
lie over till the closing of the next mail." 



THE OLD FILES. 219 



THE RIVAL THEATRES. 



In May, 1826, we discover symptoms that end in a fever- 
ish strife between the two theatres. Side by side their ad- 
vertisements stand in the "RepubHcan," and what with the 
flourish of capitals, and the unique attractions of both es- 
tablishments, the Rochestrian of that day must have found 
deciding which to patronize a hard matter. Happily, they 
did not open the same evenings. One was on Exchange 
Street, the other opposite the Old Mansion House. If one 
brought out " The Bold Buccaneers," the other followed 
with " The Orphan of Geneva," or something as attractive. 
If one gave the Sailor's Horn Pipe, the other followed with 
a Highland FHng. If one offered a prize for the best ode 
to be spoken before the rising of the curtain, and our best 
poets competed for the same, Frederic Whittlesey carrying 
off the honors, the rival bill would soon announce some- 
thing like this, found among the attractions for June, 1826: 
" ' The Vale of the Genesee ; or, the Big Chief,' with an orig- 
inal song, all written in this village." This, of course, made 
unparalleled demand upon the resources of the rival com- 
pany, but they are equal to the emergency. " On Tuesday 
evening will be presented the play, never performed here 
before, of : ' La Fayette ; or. The Castle of Olmutz,' and after 
it any number of frolicsome songs, and an Indian War 
Dance, and a broad-sword horn pipe, and the comedy of 
' Sweethearts and Wives.' " 

Now, as this same issue of the " Republican " contains 
no less than four flaming lottery advertisements, and as we 
know that the hand-organ of the Museum may be heard 
at all hours on the Four Corners beguiling our forefathers 
and foremothers into prolonged contemplation of its fas- 
cinating collection, and that the racing packets are run- 
ning on Sundays and the racing stage-coaches as well, and 
a circulating library for novels and tales is in full blast, we 
are prepared to discover, following close in the wake of the 
theatre advertisement, the " Proposals by George G. Sill for 
publishing, in the village of Rochester, once in two weeks, 



220 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

a Religious Paper, the publication of said paper to begin as 
soon as it has subscribers enough to insure the undertak- 
ing." 

July 4, 1826, was a patriotic jubilee indeed in Rochester- 
ville. Levi A. Ward and Geo. H. Mumford were the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements, and Harvey Humphrey the Orator 
of the day. Here is the programme : — 

" I. A gun at daybreak. 2. Federal salute at sunrise, 
and the bells to ring during the firing. 3. Religious ser- 
vices from 8 till 9 o'clock a. m. 4. Procession will form at 
10 o'clock in front of the Mansion House, under Colonel 
Darrow, assisted by Adjutants Parsons and Meech, in the 
following order : — 

"5. Martial musick. 6. Captain Everest's company of 
artillery. 7. Captain Smith's company of infantry. 8. 
Military officers in uniform. 9. Rochester Band. 10. Or- 
ator and Reader of the Declaration of Independence. 11. 
Reverend Clergy. 12. Revolutionary Patriots. 13. Village 
corporation. 14. Officers of the County Court. 15. Com- 
mittee of Arrangements. 16. Fire companies. 17. Mechan- 
icks' Society. 18. Citizens and strangers. 1|@^ The citizens 
of the County are invited to join in the celebration. 1§@^ 
Tickets for the dinner, with badges, can be had at Mr. Ens- 
worth's : price 50 cents. 1|@* Soldiers of the Revolution 
are invited to dine as guests. Jg@^ MiUtary officers are in- 
vited to appear in uniform. *^* Seats are reserved in the 
Meeting-House for ladies." 

Volumes might be written on these Old Files. In May, 
1827, there was "a great revival in all the churches, even 
the Episcopal." In October, 1S27, there was a great stir at 
the Four Corners. A negress, a slave, was retaken by her 
master, a Southerner, who had brought her North for a 
short stay. June 28, 1828, the "Daily Telegraph" makes 
its appearance, Henry O'Reilly, editor, calling out the fol- 
lowing from the New York " Evening Post " : — 

" We have received the first number of a daily paper, 
printed at Rochester, in this State, entitled the * Rochester 
Daily Advertiser.' The editor speaks with confidence of 



THE OLD FILES. 221 

his success, and adverts to the unexpected extent of his 
advertising patronage. Nothing can show, in a more strik- 
ing point of view, the rapid increase of our population and 
internal commerce, than the fact that this place, which, 
within a few years was a wilderness, is now enabled, by the 
number of its inhabitants and the activity of its trade, to 
support a daily paper." 

Morgan has disappeared. No one knows how or where, 
but every one has a settled conviction. It is a stormy time 
on the sea of politics. Many a ship goes down. Men ride 
into position and office on the high tide of anti-masonry. 
Columns are given to the subject, and we, by accident, find 
the item telling how a woman was tried in Baltimore that 
year for witchcraft, and discharged for want of evidence. 
* * * We close the Old Files reluctantly. The glimpse of a 
call for an Anti-Slavery meeting December i, 1828, makes 
us linger a moment longer. It is signed by Frederic Whit- 
tlesey, M. Chapin, E. Pomeroy, and E. F. Smith, and is 
addressed to those opposed to slavery, particularly in the 
District of Columbia. 

Here is a glimpse of the costume of the young men of 
that period, and we smile, pathetic as were the circum- 
stances that brought these two young men into the full light 
of the Monday morning's paper. They had gone out Sun- 
day morning, ostensibly to go to church. They had not re- 
turned. It was feared they had fallen from the old " north 
bridge" just above the Falls. One wore a green cloak, the 
other a cloak of red plaid. Suffice it to say they came home 
all right Tuesday morning. * * * Red Jacket is lecturing with 
an interpreter. * * * Mrs. Hemans is indisposed. * * * 
Such persons as want a Unitarian church in Rochester are 
requested to meet at the Clinton Hotel. The New Year's 
editorial for 1829 tells us that in the year 1828 the Mumford 
Block, on S. St. Paul Street, was built — also the Arcade, 
five churches, Ely's mill, and the Bull's Head Tavern, not to 
mention other large enterprises. " Thirteen flour mills are 
going, each run producing 6,000 bbls. a year. There has 



222 KOC/IESTF.K: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

not been a single failure in Rochester for more than two 
years." 

And here we close the Old Files. To turn over another 
page would be to find fresh topics of historical interest, 
each demanding more space than I have been permitted to 
give any preceding one. 






^u 










J-=»-S 




XVI. 



MOUNT HOPE. 

The changes the Uving have seen in their habitations 
since a row of shanties converted a Seneca trail nito a vil- 
lao-e street are fully equaled by what has taken place in 
the burial places of our dead since that first white man s 
grave was dug near the river's edge, just below the high 

^ Our earliest settlers, before a common graveyard had 
been selected, would lay their dead in the woods near their 
thresholds, where they could guard them — /^-:-;:;^^- 
The increase of the settlement naturally led to the selec- 
tion of a common burying-ground. 

Schuyler Moses tells how one of the first burial grounds 
on the east side was located, -that on our present East 
Avenue, nearly opposite Gibbs Street. One of the men 
engaged in drawing away the stone thrown out of John- 
son's race-way, and dumping it over the east bank in o 
the river, in the neighborhood of our present South Water 
Street went over with his wagon and team, and was m- 
stanti; killed. " Like him," says Mr. Moses, " we were 
all strangers away from home. Before sundown we had 
made his coffin and a bier of poles, and falling into line we 
bore the body out to Enos Stone's woods, all on foot and in 
our working clothes of course." This graveyard was never 



224 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

deeded to the village by Enos Stone. About 1820, Chester 
Bixby set apart two acres of his farm on the State Road, 
now Monroe Avenue, for a village burial ground. The 
deed was not executed until 1827, and recited a considera- 
tion of $100. The first lease found for a lot therein bears 
date 1 8th December, 1820, and is for a term of five hun- 
dred years. It is signed by Elisha Johnson, President of 
the Board of Trustees, and R. Beach, Clerk. The Rev. 
Comfort Williams was buried in this burying-ground. That 
on Enos Stone's land was given up soon after the dedica- 
tion of the new ground, and the dead there buried were 
taken up and placed in a common pit in the new grave- 
yard. In 1872, when the Monroe Street cemetery was ap- 
propriated for public school No. 15, the contents of the old 
pit were removed to Mount Hope, where it is to be hoped 
they may rest in peace. Mrs. William I. Hanford's remi- 
niscence of the old Monroe Street burying-ground is as fol- 
lows, and she has lived in its near neighborhood from the 
making of the first grave on Cobb's Hill to the present day. 

" When they first began burying there, wolves howled in 
the woods to the southward, and w'ild foxes were plenty. 
The hill had not been cut through. That w^as done in 
1835. Funerals did not cost much then. A neighbor would 
dig the grave, and possibly preach the sermon. Daddy 
Haskins dug many of the graves. Pine or cherry coffins 
were good enough for anybody, and many a time I have 
seen a purse made up by the new grave to pay the doctor's 
bill and other expenses. During the cholera times of 1832 
we could hear them working in that old burying-ground at 
all times of night, and the graves were not very deep, as 
you can believe." 

It was always a well behaved graveyard. Never a ghost 
prowled among its headstones, nor was a hanged man 
ever buried therein. It had a grave or two divided in the 
middle, telling the story of suicide, but in time it became a 
general playground for children, particularly in kite-flying 
time. Its complete removal, with that of several other old 
burying-grounds, makes even the permanency of Mount 



MOUNT HOPE. 2^5 

Hope to be questioned. Railroad monopoly fifty years 
"om now, or some monopoly that will have supplanted rad- 
oads new statutes, new codes, and new bursal customs 
may lone before .984 have made our perpetual leases m 
Znt fiope null and void. Names that to-day have a po- 
L influence even on a gravestone may then be as mean 
Ingless as those on the old marbles we transferred to the 

"ttf: S "rtutom tells a story of the Uttle burying-grom^d 
opposite Mount Hope south of t,,e r . ence of;^^ a 

G. Warner. He says tt --■V^^J'^^^rlrst^couclude 
villao-e was hopelessly ill witti lever. \ ^ ^^n^ 

Ihatl^er burial at public expense was anticipated so a com- 
mittee was appointed to select a burying-ground at once. 
Tohn Russell Ely Miller, and Chauncey Crittenden were 
h's committ e, and in their lack of time, for the poor girl 
dild, they selected the site far to the southward, and where 
the three commissioners were in time buried. 

The first graveyard on the west side was on our present 
Plymouth Avenue, a little south of Spring Street, one half 
acre, lots 103, 104, the gift of Rochester, Carroll anc Htz- 
hugi, for burial purposes, with right to sell and devo e pro- 
ceeds to the purchase of other grounds, or to exchange. 
The city kept this ground but a short time. In 1 821 it was 
exchanged for three and a half acres belonging to Roswel 
Hart on Buffalo Street. The tenants of the Sophia Street 
ground were transferred to the new site, and when, in 1851, 
the city appropriated that for its hospital, they were agam 
disinterred and borne to Mount Hope. The first burial m 
the Sophia Street ground was the young and beautiful wife 
of Dr. Gibbs, whose lonely grave was guarded for weeks 



against the wolves. 



against the woives. , 

The old Frankford burying-ground on the corner of Frank 
and Smith streets gave up its dead long ago to give place 
to one of Aristarchus Champion's mission churches. 1 he 
pinnacle graveyard of the Roman Catholics has been nearly 
deserted for their beautiful cemetery on the boulevard. 



226 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

What prayer more seemingly fruitless than that the dust of 
the departed may rest in peace ? 

A superfluity of burying-grounds, and those in thickly 
settled localities, was wisely considered an e\dl by our fore- 
fathers, who, in selecting the new cemetery, used care- 
ful thought for the future. The new grounds must be 
permanent and available, yet not too near the city, and 
with possibilities of superior imi)rovement. It was no easy 
matter to select a site that would not be considered objec- 
tionable by many. Meetings were held, and the expression 
of citizens generally called out. A committee was ap- 
pointed to choose a location for the approval of the Com- 
mon Council. Some of our leading citizens advocated buy- 
ing the grounds north of the city on the river bank, some 
presenting the claim of the west side, others the east. 
Timid folk objected to both ; there was danger of the 
banks falling in, etc. Wm. A. Reynolds was an enthusi- 
astic supporter of the proposed purchase of the land lying 
between the Float Bridge and the lake, with the bay for an 
eastern boundary. The defeat of his wishes was his sore 
disappointment, in which he was not alone. 

August 24, 1836, David Scoville, Alderman, offered a 
resolution in the Common Council that a committee be ap- 
pointed to inquire into the expediency of purchasing Silas 
Andrews' lot on the east side of the river (a part of the 
present Mount Hope), or some other lot for a burial ground. 
David Scoville, Manly G. Woodbury, and Wareham Whit- 
ney were appointed as said committee, and December 27, 
1836, the city of Rochester paid five thousand three hundred 
and eighty-six dollars for about fifty-four acres of land, the 
nucleus of our present cemetery, and loud was the outcry 
against municipal extravagance and folly from many now 
sleeping where they declared the dead could never have 
decent burial. Our late venerated citizen, Jacob Gould, was 
very tard\' in giving his approval of the measure, and out- 
spoken in his condemnation of paying one hundred dollars 
an acre for such acres as those, "all up hill and down dale," 
and a gully at their entrance at that. "That committee 



MOUNT HOPE. 227 

deserve execration," broke out the good General to his 
friend Henry O'Reilly. " Why that ground is n't fit for 
pasturing rabbits ? " " But we are not going to pasture rab- 
bits," was the cheery response from one enthusiastic over 
the selection, because of its natural beauty, and who gladly 
spent time and money in making the cemetery what it is 
to-day, and in defending the old trees and natural slopes. 
The General's family vault, one of the most conspicuous 
features of the entrance, was selected even when he was 
unreconciled to the purchase. The story is told of Mrs. 
Joseph Strong, who, when she drove out to the woods where 
the new cemetery was to be, was ready to shed tears of dis- 
appointment. She had hoped it would be a place she could 
visit occasionally. No ! she was decidedly opposed to the 
choice of the committee. The deep, almost unbroken woods, 
and what seemed inaccessible hill-tops and gullies, might do 
for a picnic, but never for a graveyard. The beauty of the 
wild-flowers, particularly the honeysuckles, still to be found 
in hidden nooks, the squirrels, the pigeons, and other game 
were, some declared, the attractions that would make the 
place the resort of pleasure-seekers and hunters. Confident 
of the wisdom of their choice, the committee having the im- 
provements in hand worked zealously in making roads and 
grading, and soon all Rochester was eloquent with praises 
of beautiful Mount Hope. 

In 1838, in accordance with the plans of John McConnell, 
approved by a committee composed of Elias Pond, Joseph 
Strong, Isaac F. Mack, the Mayor, Elisha Johnson, and 
the City Surveyor, Silas Cornell, the grounds were laid out 
and dedicated with appropriate services, October, 1838: Dr. 
Whitehouse, of St. Luke's, reading a consecration service; 
the choir of his church, Henry E. Rochester, leader, and 
Miss Jane Childs (Mrs. D. M. Dewey), soprano, singing the 
" Gloria in Excelsis " and appropriate anthems. The Rev. 
Pharcellus Church, of the First Baptist Church, made an 
address. The first burial was that of William Carter, Au- 
gust 18, 1838, aged 65 years, upon whose headstone it is 
recorded : " He was for more than 32 years an esteemed 



228 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

member of the l^aptist Church, and with great consistency 
of deportment fulfilled the duties of this relation. He died 
in hopes of a glorious immortality." 

The first city sexton was John Thompson. That was the 
day of the common hearse, without plumes for the rich and 
seedy hangings for the poor. The church sextons after- 
wards became independent assistants, digging the graves 
even of the members of the congregations to which they 
were attached. This of course brought in confusion, and 
the appropriation of lots without payment. The undertak- 
ers, or, to use our new term, the Funeral Directors, came in 
time, and order was evolved. David W. Allen was the first 
regular undertaker and dealer in ready-made coffins. When 
he started his "Coffin Factory" in the dilapidated two- 
story wooden building upon the ledge of rocks that used to 
be where our High School building now is, there were good 
people who thought he was making them too familiar with 
coffins, and that passing the sign of his wares after night- 
fall was undesirable. 

I wish we might know who gave our cemetery its appro- 
priate name. The old Common Coimcil records convey the 
impression that one William Wilson, who persisted in send- 
ing in his bills "for labor at Mount Hope," and that when 
a blank filled the place of a name on the official records, de- 
serves the honor. December 12, 1837, ^ resolution to call 

the new cemetery was laid on the table. March 27, 

1838, the City Treasurer was directed to give city notes as 
follows : " William Wilson for labor at Mount Hope Ceme- 
tery in full to 26 March, 1838, $29.63. To be charged to 
the Burial Fund. May 22, 1838: By Alderman Warner, 
Resolved, that the Committee on City Property be requested 
to report such ordinances as may be necessary to prohibit 
shooting game, and to prevent persons from committing 
trespass in Mount Hope Cemetery." 

The matter seems settled by that entry, and these un- 
satisfactory records are the only history I have been able 
to find explaining the adoption of the name. 

The sale of the lots soon reimbursed the city for the 



MOUNT HOPE. 229 

original purchase, and from that day to this, Mount Hope 
has not cost the city a dollar. From fifty acres in 1838, it 
has grown to about one hundred and eighty-seven in 1884. 
It is a city of some thirty-six thousand inhabitants, and in- 
creases at the rate of from twenty to twenty-five per week. 
Over three thousand have been buried in its public grounds, 
which include some of the most valuable sections. Since 
1865 a register of all interments has been carefully kept. 
The era of improvement came in with the late George D. 
StilJson, who from December, 1865, to the time of his death 
in 1 88 1, performed the many and difficult duties of the 
office of Superintendent with rare success. He gave to 
Mount Hope the benefit of his eminent skill as a civil engi- 
neer and his experience in landscape gardening. Mr. Still- 
son was the engineer of the famous Portage Bridge. He 
declined a far more lucrative situation than that of Super- 
intendent of Mount Hope, from love of the work he was 
so fitted to do. His memory will be associated with the 
grounds forever, not only in what he accomplished for the 
public at large, but in the kindly acts he was never slow to 
render for the lowliest mourner. The demands upon the 
genuine heroism of the keeper of Mount Hope are not in- 
frequent, and there are few places where nerve, decision, 
and a clear eye are more indispensable, whether in hunting 
down the alleged ghost that occasionally terrifies the work- 
men, ejecting a troublesome trespasser, anticipating grave 
robbers, or in doing what Mr. Stillson is known to have done 
for those fearing their dead might be buried alive, visiting 
the coffin during the night in the warm chapel where it was 
permitted to remain. He was equal to any and every emer- 
gency, even that of the unexpected arrival at the gate of a 
picnic, some two hundred strong, from one of the neighbor- 
ing townships not many years ago, headed by the good par- 
son, and flanked by generous hampers. They had come, to 
be sure, to spend the day among our graves in prayer and 
praise, and the attractions of the lake and bay were as noth- 
ing in comparison. Mr. Stillson did not say them nay, as 
we might have justified his doing, but conducted them to an 



230 ROCHESTER: A STORY IHSTORICAL. 

unoccupied and unfrequented part of the grounds, reminding 
them of the regulations of the place, where they realized all 
the enjoyment they had anticipated, and much profit, it is 
to be hoped, from their reverential reading of gravestones. 
Mount Hope has been fortunate of late years in its manage- 
ment. Its Commissioners, as a rule, have been trusty men, 
with wide knowledge of public affairs, seeking, even with 
self - sacrifice, the permanent improvement of their trust. 
The available unoccupied grounds at present amount to 
about thirty-five acres, but it is a city whose increase of 
population keeps pace with that of the babel to the north- 
ward. It is believed that no more ground will be needed for 
some twenty years. Hemlock Water has been introduced, 
a long needed convenience for lot owners seeking to beau- 
tify their grounds by cultivating flowers. Few if any cem- 
eteries in the country can compare with ours in natural 
beauty, picturesqueness, and correct taste in improvements. 
Its defect, if defect can be admitted, is the outcome of let- 
ting each lot owner carry out individual views of landscape 
gardening. That gives us the ugly fences and high hedges, 
trees planted in defiance of good taste, the narrow grav- 
elly walks between the lots, the crowding together of what 
look like paddocks for the imprisonment of the graves, the 
fast-locked gates strengthening the impression. The over- 
grown old evergreens are slowly disappearing, and there is 
a marked tendency in lot owners to favor sunshine, and 
raise grass and flowers, rather than hide their dead in dense 
thickets of shade. If our marbles may not, on the whole, 
compare with the more ostentatious and costly display of 
other cities, they are as a rule characterized by solidity, cor- 
rect taste, and pure ideal. Among the choicest specimens 
of true art may be mentioned the monuments of Aaron 
Erickson, Isaac Butts, John Allen, George Ellwanger, 
George H. Mumford, Freeman Clark, Dr. Carver, Freder- 
ick Goodrich, Wm. A. Reynolds, and that upon the Fire- 
men's ground. There are many more as beautiful and 
costly as those here named. Some exquisite memorials 
are among the slabs and tablets. The headstone of Mrs. 




^^J^ ^2y^^ ^c/' 'L^<fy 



y 




■.^ ^:i:^J^H^^/Z^ir^^ 



^^^r^/^^y 




^-^-^^ ^^^5^^:, 



^4^ 



MOUNT HOPE. 231 

William F. Cogswell is exceptionally beautiful, and as fault- 
less as any memorial in Mount Hope. 

East of Indian Trail Avenue, crowning the height of 
Section G, is the grave of Myron Holley, — a grave that 
truly consecrates the soil. The inscription upon the mar- 
ble obelisk, bearing his medalUon portrait by Carew, tells 
the story of the man to whom Rochester is greatly in- 
debted for the Erie Canal, and the Anti-Slavery cause for a 
stanch adherent when that adherence meant more than we 
can estimate to-day. It was estimated that six thousand 
persons witnessed the unveiling of this monument, June 
13, 1844. Gerrit Smith made a characteristic address, and 
a hymn written for the occasion by John Pierpont was sung 
to the tune of " God Save the King." 

" How glowed thy lips, thy pen, 
And for thy fellow-men, — 

For e'en the thrall ; 
Thy spirit dared to be 
With God's own freemen free. 
And publish his decree, — 

Freedom for all." 

The inscription upon the monument is as follows : — 
MYRON HOLLEY, 

BORN IN SALISBURY, CONNECTICUT, APRIL 29, 1779. DIED IN ROCH- 
ESTER, N. Y., MARCH 4, 1S41. HE TRUSTED IN GOD AND LOVED HIS 
NEIGHBOR. 

THE LIBERTY PARTY OF THE UNITED -STATES OF AMERICA HAVE 
ERECTED THIS MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF MYRON HOLLEY, 
THE FRIEND OF THE SLAVE, AND THE MOST EFFECTIVE AS WELL 
AS ONE OF THE EARLIEST OF THE FOUNDERS OF THAT PARTY. 

The cost of this monument was about ^3,000, and was 
erected mainly through the efforts of Gerrit Smith. It is 
closely surrounded by the graves of our pioneer families, 
and standing beside it one may read on the neighboring 
marbles such names as John Allen, Luther Tucker, Aaron 
Erickson, Samuel J. Andrews, Micah Brooks, Silas O. 
Smith, L. B. Swan, S. Hamilton, Clarendon Morse, Wm. 
Kidd, Joseph Medbury, Ralph Lester, James Breck. W. H. 
Cheney, Amos Bronson, Joseph Strong, Isaac W. Congdon, 



232 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Jesse E. Congdon, John Sears, Wm. McKnight, Lyman B. 
Langvvorthy, Dr. Matthew Brown, — names once famiHar 
enough at " the Corners " and not yet forgotten. The per- 
petuation of many an old tic is suggested in the comrade- 
ship of these tombstones. 

The monument bearing the name of Elhvanger, the work 
of the Roman artist Papotti, and that in memory of Aaron 
Erickson, from the same studio, are perhaps the finest spec- 
imens of the sculptor's art to be found in Mount Hope. 
That of the Ellwanger monument represents St. John on 
the Isle of Patmos. The figure is above life size, in sitting 
posture, and cut in Italian marble. The words of the in- 
scription, "I heard a voice from heaven," are wondrously 
idealized in the evangelist, who waits, pencil in hand, ready 
to record the apocalyptic message. At the base of this 
monument is the grave of Henry Brooks Ellwanger, author 
of "The Rose," an eminent rosarian, who attained before 
his death, at the age of 32 years, the rank of a leading 
authority upon the subject to which he had given loving 
and careful study. " His was a life of noble purpose, rich 
in promise, and disappointing the world only by its too sud- 
den close." 

The Erickson monument, the life-size figure of an aged 
man in a reclining attitude, is appropriately named and 
perfectly represents "The Pilgrim's Rest," of Sir Walter 
Raleigh's exquisite poem : — 

" Give me my scallop shell of quiet, 
My staff of faith to walk upon ; 
My scrip of joy (immortal diet). 

My bottle of salvation ; 
My gown of glory, hope's true gage, 
And thus I take my pilgrimage. 

Over the silver mountains, 
Where spring the nectar fountains, 
There will I kiss 
The bowl of bliss, 
And drink my everlasting fill, 
Upon every milken hill. 
My soul will be adry before, 
But after that will thirst no more." 



MOUNT HOPE. 233 

In the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery there is another work 
of genuine art by Papotti, the monument upon the lot of 
Patrick Barry, representing Religion. 

The Carv^er monument, in the southern part of the 
grounds, is as striking as any. A Corinthian column of 
granite, surmounted by a figure life sized. The inscription 
is as follows : " In memory of Hartwell Carver, M. D. De- 
scendant of John Carver who came over in the May Flower 
A. D. 1620. 

"He lived to see an achieved fact what forty years before 
was to him a vision of the future. Many years of his life 
were devoted to arouse the public mind to the great enter- 
prise demonstrating its practicability. 

"Dr. Carver was the Father of the Pacific Railroad. 
With him originated the thought of connecting the Atlantic 
and Pacific Ocean by Railroad." 

Dr Carver superintended the erection of this monument 
himself, and the funds were supplied by Californian capi- 
talists. 

The Firemen's Monument is exceptionally praiseworthy, 
and reflects great credit upon the organization. It stands 
upon the Firemen's ground, a lot 100 feet square, is fifty feet 
high, of St. Johnsbury granite, Egyptian-Doric in style, and 
cost $8,000. It is the work of H. S. Hibbard, who, by the 
way, is an ex-fireman. The figure of a fireman on its top, 
wearing his service hat, and his coat over his arm, is well- 
posed and symmetrical. He seems to have a vigilant out- 
look over the city, a keen vision for its safety, and ear at- 
tent for the alarm bell. 

The first monument erected on Mount Hope was that of 
Mary Hall Brooks, wife of General Micah Brooks, whose 
history is interwoven with our pioneer days. It was the 
hatchet of Micah Brooks that blazed the trees on the site 
of Mount Hope when the Indian trail was the solitary track 
through its primeval forest, and several of the committee 
engaged in the first improvement of the grounds tried hard 
to preserve those old blazed trees of the pioneer road-maker, 
but in vain. Mrs. Brooks's antiquated monument is not 



234 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

far from that of Myron Holley, and affords a study of the 
progress of monumental art, for that old-fashioned marble 
obelisk on a granite base was much admired in its day. 
Mrs. Brooks, it is said, was the first woman spoken of in 
our journalism as a pioneer. Pioneers had to make a be- 
ginning of the use of the term of course, and when applied 
to the deceased wife of General Brooks it was something 
like an innovation. 

Some forty years ago, and later, long before the beach 
at Charlotte was a much frequented resort, save by wagon 
loads of pleasure seekers, who built their camp fires on the 
sand. Mount Hope was the chosen resort for the young peo- 
ple seeking a holiday, — the old folk, too, for that matter. 
Saturday morning of a fair summer day would see Sunday 
and day-schools marching in attempt at procession along 
South St. Paul Street, lunch baskets in hand, toward Mount 
Hope. Every child knew that to pick a flower there, or 
strew the sward with rubbish, would be an unpardonable 
offense. Up the steep pinnacle hill they panted, climbed 
to the top of the tower, elated beyond expression if they 
could get a faint glint of blue Ontario, and then to "the 
funnel " for dinner, " winding the clock " by racing down 
the circular path, — happy if in their meanderings they could 
peep into the half-open door of the city vault, or join some 
funeral train at an open grave. The Clover Lot, as it was 
called, was the extreme southern section of the cemetery in 
those days, and before sundown we (for let us acknowledge 
ourselves of the party) had rambled over the greater portion 
of the grounds, usually strolling homeward along the west- 
ern woodland slopes, where we had liberty to pull the wild 
honeysuckles if they were in season, and where our path 
led to " Bear's Bones Monument." That was the name we 
children at least applied to the monumental wooden struc- 
ture on what was called Patriot Hill, and whose inscription, 
if there was one, somehow failed in removing from our 
minds the impression that a bear had been there buried. It 
was one of the mysteries of Mount Hope to which we gave 
unquestioning assent. But after a few years the bay, the 



MOUNT HOPE. 235 

lake, and the river became accessible, and the holiday ram- 
blers were pulling oars upon the Genesee, landing sunfish 
at the Newport House, or bathing at Charlotte, and Bear's 
Bones Monument tumbled down with decay, but not until 
an investigating lad or two had secured a specimen of its 
contents, — for the investigating lads had not failed to 
discover that the monument and its urn held mouldering 
bones, and, to the great disappointment of said lads, the old 
landmark at last disappeared entirely, and the huckleberry 
bushes flourished in its place. Some time after, the site 
was purchased by Wm. A. Reynolds, and transformed into 
one of the most beautiful and highly cultivated, sections of 
the cemetery. 

Now it is probable that there are few among us to-day 
who have ever given a thought as to what became of the 
wooden memorial, and of Patriot Hill, — the ground sol- 
emnly appropriated in Mount Hope, nearly forty - three 
years ago, "for the mortal remains of Revolutionary sol- 
diers who have died, or may hereafter die, in the valley of 
the Genesee." 

THE STORY OF PATRIOT HILL MOUNT HOPE. 

The Rochester Athenaeum and Young Men's Associa- 
tion, in those stirring years following our incorporation as a 
city, was the head source of many projects for the public 
good. Among these was the effort to establish the keep- 
ing of historical anniversaries, particularly those associated 
with Western New York ; and when it was suggested by 
this much respected body that a portion of the new cem- 
etery be set apart for the burial of soldiers of the Revolu- 
tion, and that the remains of those who fell in the massacre 
at Groveland, Livingston County, during Sullivan's cam- 
paign, 1779, be disinterred and committed to its soil with 
fitting honors, public sentiment gave hearty approval at 
once. Sixty-two years had elapsed since Sullivan's heroes 
marched into the heart of the Senecas' country, bearing 
fire and sword ; and through the revival of the topic in the 
local press, the thrilling story, nearly forgotten, of Lieuten- 



236 ROCHESTEK. A STORY HISTORICAL. 

ant Bo3'd and his little company of massacred heroes, was 
made familiar in every revolting- detail. School -children 
were taught the story of how Lieutenant Boyd of Sullivan's 
army, 1779, ^'""^^ "''•^ little company of heroes, were surprised 
by the Indians under Brandt and Butler, about a mile and 
a half from the head of the Conesus Lake, and how the 
mostof them were massacred on the battle-field of Grove- 
land, where they were buried, while their leader and a 
soldier named Parker were carried prisoners to Little 
Beard's Town, near the site of the present village of Cuy- 
lerville, horribly tortured and killed, their headless remains 
found by a party of Sullivan's soldiers a few days after, 
identified, and buried with military honors under a clump 
of wild plum-trees, at the junction of two small streams, 
which form what was known as Beard's Creek. "A large 
mound still marks the spot," wrote the Livingston County 
correspondent, " close by the bridge across the creek, on 
the road from Cuylerville to Geneseo." The heroes of the 
Groveland battle-field lay in a grave well known to the old 
settlers of the locality. Li 1807 their resting -j^lace had 
been disturbed for the purpose, as was alieged, of carrying 
away their clothing for sacred relics, and in 1830 the spade 
had again gratified the curiosity of mound diggers, but it 
was affirmed that the rapidly decaying bones had been re- 
buried. Four metallic buttons marked " U. S. A." had 
been found and appropriated, to be presented at this crisis 
as proof sufficient that the bones were those of Sullivan's 
soldiers. 

In a very short time all Western New York was inter- 
ested in the accounts filling the newspapers of Sullivan's 
campaign, and the story of Boyd and his little band. That 
he should be lying in an unmarked grave under a clump of 
old plum-trees, and several of his soldiers in so obscure a 
spot as Groveland, when Rochester had such a great, beau- 
tiful cemetery as Mount Hope, was a state of things the 
Rochester patriot, at least, could not tolerate. "Go to," 
said the Athenaeum, the Young Men's Association, the 
newspapers, and the speech-makers, "and let our brave sol- 



§ 



V. 



^ 

^ 



^ ^ 




MOUNT HOPE. 237 

diers bear those remains to a spot consecrated to their 
keeping forever more." 

Stirring meetings were held in Geneseo, Scottsville, 
Mount Morris, etc. Livingston County responded to the 
unselfish patriotism of Monroe ; and Livingston County, 
which had been thinking of setting up a Boyd monument 
herself, consented at last to the removal of its honored 
dead, for had not the enlarged views of the citizens of 
Rochester convinced all that their trust would be wisely 
bestowed } 

August 20, 1 84 1, was fixed upon as the day for bearing 
the dust of the heroes to Patriot Hill, Mount Hope. The 
military, the firemen, the civic societies and officers, every 
organization in the Genesee Valley, in fact, would be rep- 
resented at least by delegates. The Senate assembled as 
a court for the correction of errors at Buffalo ; the Gov- 
ernor, General Scott, and many a high dignitary besides, 
were invited to be present. A wooden monument, painted 
white to represent marble, had been fashioned, and a stone 
laid for its sure foundation, on the crest of Patriot Hill. 
This, of course, would be replaced by something better in 
time. The wooden urn containing the remains of Boyd 
and Parker, and what was persistently called " the sarcoph- 
agus," a wooden box in which the remains of the Groveland 
heroes had been placed, would be an impressive feature of 
the funeral procession. A flotilla of five boats with five 
military companies aboard, — the Williams Light Infantry, 
under Captain Gibbs ; the Union Grays, under Captain 
Swan; the City Cadets, under Captain Tucker; the Roch- 
ester Artillery, under Captain Davis ; and the German 
Grenadiers, under Captain Klein, — with invited guests 
and a large journalistic force, glided southward along the 
Valley Canal on the afternoon of August 19th, its progress 
watched by an enthusiastic crowd, who hung out bunting, 
and cheered until it was dark enough to light the big bon- 
fires along the route. Who could say that the patriotism 
of America was on the wane, when the boats landed their 
crews for breakfast at Mount Morris, and the military 



238 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

marched up and down the streets. Then all followed in 
grand procession by canal and roadway to Cuylerville, 
where there was a generous dinner spread under a bower 
for the military companies and citizens, while the survivors 
of the Revolution and the distinguished guests were most 
hospitably entertained by Colonel Cuyler in his beautiful 
residence in the grove on the hill. One of the newspaper 
reports of the day was as follows : — 

" The procession was then formed and proceeded to the 
mound, some three quarters of a mile east of the canal. 
The bones of Boyd and Parker had been deposited in an 
urn, and after a dirge played with much effect by the band, 
on the very spot where sixty-two years ago the savage yells 
of Little Beard and his bloodthirsty rangers had been the 
only requiem, they were slowly borne away with the sar- 
cophagus containing the ashes of their comrades, followed 
by the thousands collected from Geneseo, and the eastern 
extremes of the county. [The citizens of Geneseo, etc., had 
brought with them to that spot the relics of Boyd's soldiers 
who fell in Groveland, which were thus united with the 
ashes of their gallant officer in the honors paid to their 
heroism by the people of another age, who are enjoying the 
blessings of that freedom for which those soldiers fell.] On 
reaching the large grove of stately oaks near Colonel Cuy- 
ler's house, where a platform and seats had been erected, 
the vast concourse was called to order, and prayer offered 
by the Rev. Mr. Gillett, of Moscow. Major Moses Van 
Campen, aged 85, and Mr. Sanburn, aged 79, sat on the 
platform by the side of Captain Perry, all of whom had been 
actively employed in Sullivan's expedition. Mr. Sanburn 
was the man who first discovered the mangled remains of 
13oyd and Parker. . . . After another dirge, Mr. Samuel 
Treat, Principal of the Geneseo Seminary, addressed the 
audience." 

A few extracts from what was particularly addressed to 
our Rochester military must here be given, if for no other 
reason than the proving how destitute was the speaker of the 
gift of seership, in common with the five thousand and more 



MOUNT HOPE. 239 

witnesses of the salvation of those resurrected bones from 
their obscure graves under the old plum-trees. There was 
eloquent comment, of course, upon the proud office of our 
military that day, and classical allusion to Marathon and 
Thermopylae, and the daring of the soldiers of Athens and 
Sparta. " If hereafter our soil should be invaded by a for- 
eign foe, look on the hill which overhangs your noble city, 
and remember there lies a soldier bold and fearless as even 
Leonidas. . . . From the hands of those who periled all for 
freedom, receive the sacred trust now committed to your 
charge." Thereupon Major Van Campen, president of the 
day, in the name of the committee of the County of Living- 
ston, did surrender the sacred relics for honorable inter- 
ment in Mount Hope. The Mayor of Rochester, the Hon. 
E. F. Smith, responding that not merely the citizens of 
Rochester, but of the whole Genesee Valley, would through 
long ages guard with filial care their resting-place. Henry 
O'Reilly offered a resolution, which was unanimously ap- 
proved, "That the streams at whose junction was buried the 
mangled bodies of Boyd and Parker, one of which streams 
has hitherto been nameless, and the other named after the 
savage chief whose ferocity w^as signalized by the shocking 
tortures of the gallant Boyd, shall hereafter be named in 
honor of those fallen soldiers, — the latter Boyd's Creek, 
and the former Parker's Creek ; that those streams, and 
the mound at their junction, may commemorate the names 
and services of those martyrs through all time, 'while grass 
grows and water runs.' " 

With the sinking sun, the flotilla bearing the urn and 
"sarcophagus" glided northward to dirge like strains of 
music, arriving in Rochester at sunrise the next morning, 
when a national salute was fired. At ten o'clock the bells 
the city over tolled their mournfullest, and, — 

" With drooping flag and mufiled drum. 
And slow and measured tread, 
Behold ! on their proud march they come, 
The bearers of the dead," — 

as one of our home poets wrote " impromptu, while the 



240 ROCHESTER: A STORY II/STORICAL- 

procession was moving to Mount Hope." The escort was 
arranged as follows, but in reversed order : — 

Governor Seward, Chancellor Whittlesey, Adjutant Gen- 
eral Rufus King, Surgeon General McNaughton, Major 
General John A. Granger, Colonel George W. Bemis, of 
Ontario County ; Major General Hestor L. Stevens, Briga- 
dier General Joseph Wood, Brigadier General W. E. La- 
throp, Colonel John Allen, Colonel E. Darwin Smith, Colonel 
Jason Bassett and staff. Lieutenant Colonel Goodhue, Major 
Amon Bronson, Major Samuel Richardson, Major William 
Churchill ; C. H. Bryan, chairman, S. Treat, orator, and W. 
H. Kelsey, Livingston County Committee ; Chairman and 
Members Rochester Committee, Mayor and Aldermen, the 
Rev. Messrs. Tucker, Carlton, and Tooker ; Revolutionary 
soldiers, pall-bearers, the hearse, urn, etc. 

Williams Light Infantry. — Major John Williams, Cap- 
tain George A. Gibbs, ist Lieut. James Miller, 2d Lieut. 
J. C. Campbell. 

Rochester Union Grays. — Captain L. B. Swan, ist Lieut. 
W. H. Cheney, 2d Lieut. H. P. Daniels, 3d Lieut. N. R. 
Child, Ensign George W. Fisher. 

Rochester City Cadets. — Captain Hiram A.Tucker, ist 
Lieut, J. L. Elwood, 2d Lieut. D. M. Dewey. 

German Groiadiers. — Captain Peter Klein, ist. Lieut. 
George EUwanger, 2d Lieut. A. Kiefer. 

Rochester Artillery Corps. — Captain Hiram Davis, ist 
Lieut. N. B. Ellison, 2d Lieut. G. S. Jennings. 

Fire Departmcjit. — " Number 4." — Josiah Bissell, Fore- 
man ; H. Haight, ist Assistant Foreman ; E. Brown, 2d 
Assistant Foreman ; H. F. Smith, Secretary ; Thomas 
Hawks, Standard bearer. 

" Number 6." — John L Reilly, Foreman; John Cowles, 
Assistant Foreman : L. B. Langworthy, Secretary. 

The march of this long procession from the entrance gate 
of Mount Hope to Section R, Lot 85, was something differ- 
ent from what it would be to-day, as the roads had been but 
little improved. 

The military formed a line around the base of the hill. 



MOUNT HOPE. 241 

The Rev. Elisha Tucker dedicated the ground by a short 
impressive address, and then, in the absence of an Episcopal 
clergyman, read the burial service. 

" These ceremonies," said Governor Seward in his ad- 
dress, " are of public interest to the State ; its whole peo- 
ple must contemplate them with satisfaction." And again 
Rochester felt the eyes of the world fixed upon her. But 
it is a quotation from the impassioned address of the Rev. 
Mr. Tucker that interests us most to-day : " The repose of 
these heroes has not been idly disturbed. . . . When our 
children shall visit this spot ... it will remind them of the 
patriotism of their forefathers ; ... it will impress them 
with the conviction, that as piety and patriotism were united 
in the Revolutionary struggle ... so every attempt to 
separate them has an inevitable tendency to irretrievable 
ruin." 

He closed by saying : " This beautiful spot in Mount 
Hope has been generously presented to your Committee of 
Arrangements as a cemetery for the mortal remains of 
Revolutionary soldiers who have died or may hereafter die 
in the valley of the Genesee. And we do, therefore, on 
behalf of the citizens of Rochester and of this valley, and 
in the name of our country, and of our country's God, most 
solemnly appropriate this ground to that sacred purpose." 

The committee from Livingston County might well re- 
turn to their homes believing that the dust of the heroes 
they had committed to Mount Hope would be sacredly 
guarded. Some will read the names of that credulous com- 
mittee with interest, — Calvin H. Bryan, Allen Ayrault, 
William T. Cuyler, Daniel H. Bissell, Reuben Sleeper, J. 
Henderson, Horatio Tones, John R. Murray, Jr., Samuel 
Treat, E. R. Hammatt, W. W. Weed, W. H. Stanley, D. P. 
Bissell. 

But alas for the ambitious display of a patriotism so easily 
pricked to collapse by journalistic quills ! 

The Whigs had appropriated this popular movement, 
and the Loco-focos looked on suspiciously, perhaps jeal- 
ously. It would never do to let the Whigs enjoy the popu- 
16 



242 KOCHESTEK: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

larity of such a movement unmolested. T. Hart Hyatt, 
and Major liumphrcy of the "Advertiser," dipped their pens, 
possibly while the dirge notes and the tolling bells broke the 
serenity of their sanctum, and wrote the editorials that 
awoke the cry of " Bears' Bones ! " and, in spite of the as- 
sex'erations of those who saw the graves opened, a fickle 
populace gave ear to the accusation. It was all a political 
move, a concerted scheme for opening the next political 
campaign. Verily the bones were those of bears. How 
much could be found of human remains buried sixty-two 
years ago, forsooth, by a public road, and that when the 
graves had been opened several times .'* T. Hart Hyatt 
was dubbed T. Hyena Hyatt, and Bears' Bones Hyatt, by 
the Whigs, who denied and re-denied every accusation of 
duplicity ; but the thing was done, the enthusiasm expended, 
and possibly if the participants and enthusiasts of the move- 
ment, who were by no means confined at the first to the 
Whig party, had visited Patriot Hill more frequently during 
those years when the temporary monument was falling to 
decay, mayhap the bones they had sworn to guard with filial 
care had not fallen all unnoted to the ground with urn and 
"sarcophagus" when nature whispered "dust to dust" 
with no patriot to sigh amen. 

When Chauncey Parsons became keeper of the cemetery 
in 1863, there were some half dozen graves on the top of 
the hill said to belong to Revolutionary patriots, and two or 
three more with less distinguished occupants buried there 
by special permission. "No signs of Lieutenant Boyd's 
remains were ever shown me on that hill, or any other spot 
on Mount Hope," writes Mr. Parsons. " I never saw the 
wooden monument, nor heard it spoken of by officials or 
prominent citizens. As I lived in Geneseo previous to 
1858, I was conversant with the rumored discovery of 
Lieutenant Boyd's remains ; . . . but I got the impression 
that there was very little evidence that the bones of Lieu- 
tenant Boyd had been discovered, and that the military pa- 
rade and the building of the mound were in the interest of 
certain parties in the Genesee Valley. ... I heard nothing 



MOUNT HOPE. 243 

more of the bones until I went to Mount Plope. . . . Some- 
thing had to be clone to furnish land for lots, as we had 
very few that were salable. . . . The Commissioners sug- 
gested moving Patriot Hill ; . . . there had been no Revo- 
lutionary soldiers buried there for some time, and there was 
no s:rave that was said to contain the remains of Lieuten- 
ant Boyd. As this Patriot Hill had been set apart by the 
Common Council to be used for a certain purpose, the 
Commissioners went to that body to get the authority for 
moving the dead. . . . We then cut down the hill on a 
grade suitable for burying purposes, and cleared away the 
dense forest on the west side. . . . The ground sold for 
some two or three thousand dollars, and the grading was 
finished when William A. Reynolds negotiated for his fam- 
ily lot. His purchase had nothing to do with the removal 
of Patriot Hill, nor had any other influence than one seek- 
ing the public good." 

Over and above the remains in the graves were a few 
bones actually found on the surface of the ground near the 
site of the wooden monument. These a workman scooped 
into his hat, and bore as reverently, no doubt, to their new 
resting-place, as if he had been a procession two miles 
long, with muffled drums, and the Governor. He depos- 
ited them in one of the newly dug graves devoted to the 
patriots. It is barely possible that hat might yet be found. 

Yes, Patriot Hill is a thing of the past, unless we give 
that name to the spot in the public grounds in section Y, 
where the remains of the few Revolutionary soldiers, whose 
friends had proudly intrusted their dust to our patriotism, 
lie in the long tiers of graves close together, four or five 
graves, and only one with a headstone. But headstones 
are not the rule in that locahty, but simple crosses of wood, 
or clumsily fashioned tablets with homely lettering of ob- 
scure names. There is evidently no deposit in the Repair 
Fund for keeping these overgrown hillocks in order. 
Many of the wooden head-boards are lying flat upon the 
ground, few stand upright, and in truth, beautiful as is the 
scenery from the northwesterly slope across the ravine, it 



244 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

is hardly the place the grand procession of 1841 saw in the 
future when they bore the urn and " sarcophagus " from 
Cuyler\ille. 

Only one grave of the five said to contain Revolutionary 
soldiers has a headstone. There were perhaps twice as 
many patriots buried here, but their friends removed them 
for reasons not hard to understand. On the mossy and 
antiquated headstone you may read : — 

Rev. EBENEZER VINING. 

born october 5tu, 1754. died ix rochester, august 24th, 1s43. 

AGED 89. 
HE SERVED HIS COUNTRY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE AS A 
PRIVATE SOLDIER UNDER THE IMMEDIATE COMMAND OF GENERAL 
WASHINGTON; AFTER WHICH HE UNITED WITH THE BAPTIST 
CHURCH IN LEYDEN, MASS., AND ENTERED THE WORK OF THE MIN- 
ISTRY, THE DUTIES OF WHICH HE DISCHARGED UNTIL THE 89TII YEAR 
OF HIS AGE. 

On Decoration Day these graves are not forgotten, and 
the little flags flutter from one May to another. When our 
heroes of the Rebellion have a monument worthy of their 
cause and heroism, possibly these graves will disappear, to 
be c[uickly replaced by others identical in appearance, un- 
marked, and perhaps uncared for. 

It is a fitting place for meditation. . . . Well, we have the 
four buttons preserved among the relics of our Athena-um 
Library. No one can deny that. The stone that supported 
the monument may be seen any day under a flower vase 
north of the entrance gate at Mount Hope. Then there 
are two streams in Livingston County, one named Boyd's 
Creek, the other Parker's. That is something. There is 
a picture, moreover, of the Patriot Hill as its founders saw 
it in their near future. How those words of the Geneseo 
school-master come back derisively when we look upon it : 
" If hereafter our soil should be invaded by a foreign foe, 
look on the hill which overhangs your noble city, and re- 
member there lies a soldier bold and fearless as even Leon- 
idas." 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 245 



XVII. 

THE ISMS CHARGE. 

I. The Patriot War (Patriot-ism). — 2. Millerism. — 3. Abolitionism. — 
4. Woman's Rights-ism. — 5. Spiritualism (Rochester Knockings). 

"Rochester — that hot -bed of isms," the New York 
" World " was pleased to say of us some twenty years ago, 
and the appellative proved popular at once. Since then we 
have only to pirouette in the slightest way before the pub- 
lic, and the old isms charge is reiterated as if in some way 
accounting for anything we may happen to do. 

A study of our isms will prove that they are, on the 
whole, rather to our credit than the contrary. Our fanat- 
icisms, so called, have often proved world-agitating move- 
ments of reform. If not indigenous, they found here the 
necessary conditions for growth and speedy development. 
The New York journal, however, might have improved its 
metaphor in calling us a bulletin board instead of a hot-bed, 
for the success of our isms has been rather in their publi- 
cation with our exceptional facilities, than in any forcing 
process of the germs. The letter received at our post-office 
a few years ago explains our accepted characteristic in giv- 
ing everything a good start, from a new star before the foot- 
lights to a scheme for the reformation of the politics of the 
moon. The letter was addressed : " P. T. Barnum, Roch- 
ester, N. Y. Please foller up his menagriee." 

Our early revivals of religion will not pass unnoted in 
cataloguing the grounds for this accusation. There was 
our much talked of opposition to the Sabbath stages, and 
canal boats besides, and the ultra phase of that Sabbath 
reform movement which the preponderating voice of our 



246 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

conservatives finally shaped to the compromise needed. 
The development of the true idea was the result of healthy 
antagonism, proved again in the result of the Morgan ex- 
citement. He who makes no mistakes makes no advance, 
and so we may look back to our transient partiality for 
Lancastrianism, Grahamism, and even Blue Glass-ism with 
real satisfaction. 

The important movements distinctly identified with 
Rochester as their birthplace or hot -bed, and which the 
student of their history, if not the world at large, associates 
with our city's name, are Spiritualism, Millerism, Abolition- 
ism, and Woman Suffrageism. There are many minor 
movements that might be noted by brief allusion at least. 

Foremost among our isms let us acknowledge Patriot-ism 
and its decided manifestation in the Patriot War (1837-38), 
when Rochester was the headquarters for Canadian refu- 
gees and a rendezvous for enlistments and stores. The 
patriotism of our conservatives, who would preserve the 
neutrality of the United States at any cost, was hardly sur- 
passed by the daring exploits of our radicals, who were 
fierce for an invasion of Canada. Those stormy times 
along the border are almost unknown to the children of the 
very men who joined the rebel camp on Navy Island, and 
were ready to die, if needs be, for the Patriot cause, wdiose 
doctrines were most obnoxious to the Canadian govern- 
ment, and whose failure was precipitated by the lamenta- 
ble incompetency of its leaders as well as by the terrible 
retaliation of the power assailed. The ill - planned inva- 
sions of the Patriots, aided often by Americans, resulted 
in wholesale hangings of the leaders, prisoners starving in 
dungeons, and transportations to Van Diemen Land. The 
outbreak was the result of English interference with local 
legislation, and the existence of a Tory tyranny in con- 
nection with the government offices. The leader of the 
movement was Wm. L. Mackenzie, the head of the most 
influential press in the province. He organized nearly two 
thousand societies against the government, instigated the 
unsuccessful attack upon Toronto, and fleeing to Rochester 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 247 

at last, where he had an enthusiastic following, lay many- 
weeks in our county jail, because of his disregard of our 
laws of neutrality. The orders of the Federal government 
for the repression of every movement violating our neu- 
trality were little regarded here as elsewhere along the 
line, so intense was the indignation called out by the brutal 
tyranny of the Canadian military. Our market house was 
stacked full of arms for the Patriots, provisions poured in 
from the country, and old inhabitants on the Ridge Road 
tell us how the heavy wagons could be heard hurrying west- 
ward all night long ; for Colonel Van Rensselaer, the hero 
of Oueenstown Heights,, had taken possession of Navy 
Island, in the Niagara River, and his force was increasing. 
Deer Hunts and Red Fox Hunts and Exploring Expedi- 
tions had become suddenly the rage even with law-abiding 
citizens of Rochester. There was no lack of provisions. 
" How well I remember the big onions that filled Child's 
warehouse one day when I rambled in there boy fashion, 
— 'all going to the Patriots,' I was told, and every onion 
doubled in importance straightway." Neutrality meetings 
were not popular, and the annexation of Canada was con- 
fidently prophesied, even by some who held aloof from 
bringing it about. 

Now the Patriots at Navy Island had in their service a 
small steamboat called the Caroline, and one Friday, Decem- 
ber 29, 1837, it had been running as a ferry-boat between 
the island and the shore, on the private account of the 
owners, one of whom, by the way, was Hamlet Scran tom, of 
Rochester. Evening found the Caroline moored at Fort 
Schlosser, a landing-place on the American side, and as the 
taverns were overcrowded, it was full as it could hold. At 
ten o'clock at night five boats, containing forty-five British 
soldiers, pushed off from the Canadian side, under cover of 
the darkness, boarded the Caroline, drove its unarmed men 
ashore, killed six, and wounded several more. Then towing 
the boat out into the stream it was set on fire and left to 
drift with the current. Wrapt in flame, it swept by the 
horrified force on Navy Island, who believed it freighted 
with their co-patriots. 



248 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

The news spread over the country that the Canadians 
had invaded the United States and set fire to a passenger- 
boat, leaving it to drift over Niagara Falls with its helpless 
inmates. Public excitement and indignation was intense. 
It is said that among the volunteers who rushed to the aid 
of the Patriots was George Dawson, editor of the Roch- 
ester " Democrat," whose enthusiasm was equal to his rid- 
ing to Buffalo on a cannon. A former resident of our city 
writes as follows : — 

"A public meeting of all who sympathized with the rebel- 
lion was called at once. The Court House was packed long 
before the hour named. Colonel George W. Pratt was 
chairman. Rochester had at that time several brilliant 
speakers, all young, able, and ambitious. Watts, Chase, 
Chumasero, Doolittle, on that night fired the public heart. 
The excitement was great. An amusing episode occurred 
as Lawyer Doolittle (afterwards senator) finished an ani- 
mated and stirring speech. With his slow, deep voice he 
said, ' I understand there is now in the room a young gen- 
tleman just arrived from the seat of war who could' — but 
that was enough. He was not allowed to finish. Instantly 
a yell arose for the latest arrival. ' Pass him over in a plate ! ' 
' Hand him over in a spoon ! ' ' Trot him out quick ! ' were 
the welcomes which came to the ears of a timid lad of 18, 
named James D. Reid, who stood amazed in the margin of 
that wild multitude, having just arrived from Toronto. He 
was at once lifted over the heads of the crowd, placed on a 
table in front of the president, and kindly told to speak 
loud and make himself at home ! He never knew what he 
said that night, but the 'Democrat' gave him half a column 
on the following morning. After the meeting was over, a 
well-known citizen, Christopher H. Graham, illustrated 
Rochester's characteristic hospitality by inviting the young 
stranger to his house, and offering him his best room as 
his permanent home." 

A special message from the governor recommended the 
Legislature to make provision for a military force for the 
protection of exposed citizens and the maintenance of peace 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 249 

upon the border. The President ordered General Scott to 
the frontier for the preservation of peace. Requisition was 
made upon the governors of New York and Vermont for a 
sufficient militia to assist the Commander-in-chief. The 
President exhorted all persons who had engaged in a pro- 
ject dangerous to their own country, and fatal to those they 
would relieve, to disperse at once, with the solemn assurance 
that should their conduct place them in the power of Can- 
ada, they would receive no countenance or aid from their 
own government. Not a few among us remember warrants 
requiring them to appear armed and equipped by a certain 
day to go to the frontier, and that when their sympathies 
were with the Patriots, which gave the campaign an unat- 
tractive aspect. " Colonel Joseph Wood commanded our 
regiment, the 25th Artillery," is the record in F. X. Beck- 
with's Journal. " Williams was our Lieutenant Colo- 
nel; Jason Bassett, Adjutant; and Amos Soper, Evan 
Evans, Franklin Robb, and F. X. Beckwith were Captains. 
My Lieutenants were John Hammond and James Beck- 
with ; Samuel Welch and James Wells, Orderly Sergeants \ 
Chester Keyes, Fifer ; Theodore Wilbur, John Wilbur, 
Drummers. Among my privates were Hugh McVean, 

Samuel Wood, James Salter, W. H. Rogers, Stewart,. 

French, Henry Vosburg, John Whitney, Gilbert 

Whitney, and G. W. Goodhue. One James Cox deserted." 
The troops traveled by railroad as far as Batavia. From' 
there they marched on foot, and were hissed at and derided 
by every one along the route. Food was once refused 
them at a country tavern, when they planted their guns 
before the house and gave the host five minutes to come to 
their terms, which it is needless to add he did with profound 
hospitality. A few days of roughing it in camp; of hurried 
marching from one point to another,— and home they came, 
to rest on their well-earned laurels, for by the middle of 
January, 1838, the Patriots had broken up camp, and the 
British jack was flying on Navy Island. Doctor Mackensie 
and General Van Rensselaer had been arrested by United 
States officers for organizing a hostile expedition within the 



250 kociip:ster: a story historical. 

territory of the United States against a friendly nation, and 
in time the State of New York indicted some of the per- 
sons concerned in taking and burning the Caroline for will- 
ful murder. The fever in the public mind, however, was 
not quickly allayed, and expeditions were planned from dif- 
ferent points along the line for the invasion of Canada, 
and many a great scheme exploded, leaving its supporters 
stranded in poverty or pining in prison. 

The Patriot War gave us one of our most honored and 
valuable citizens. John G. Parker, a merchant of Hamilton, 
Canada, was suspected of being in league with the Patriots, 
although no stronger evidence could be brought against 
him than certain expressions he had used in a letter to a 
friend. He was thrown into prison, sentenced to Van 
Diemen Land for life, and his property confiscated. We 
read in the "Advertiser," Dec. 3, 1838: "Mrs. Parker, the 
wife of the unfortunate John G. Parker, has taken up her 
residence in this city. She has suffered severely from the 
cruel tyranny of the Canadian government, and it is hoped 
that her unfortunate husband " (then a prisoner bound for 
Van Diemen Land) " may soon know that she is among 
friends," etc. December nth we read: "It gives us pleas- 
ure to state that efforts to secure the release of John G. 
Parker have been made. Petitions and documents in his 
favor have been sent to England, and will reach there about 
the time he does." 

The efforts were successful, and he was released from 
the vessel where he had undergone cruel privations, to say 
nothing of mental torture, and was soon with his family 
again. He found staunch friends here in Rochester, and 
in a few years had estabHshed the well-known grocery 
house that was an old landmark where the Union Clothing 
Store now stands. The great elm on South Clinton Street is 
associated with his hospitable home ; and in his successor in 
business, George G. Maurer, we have one who entered into 
his employ as a boy apprentice, and who perpetuates the 
peculiar methods and characteristics of the old store. There 
is a marked resemblance between Maurer's grocery house 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 25 I 

of to-day and John G. Parker's in the Forties. The old resi- 
dent can easily fancy himself among the wares of the Cana- 
dian refugee, — the whiffs of tarred rope, foreign cheese, and 
rare spices, and the great bundles of skein yarn aiding the 
pleasing illusion. 

Dr. Mackensie wrote many of his incendiary pamphlets 
here. Dr. Rolph, another notorious Patriot and refugee, 
dwelt for some time among us. In fact we had a colony 
of patriots, and they were by no means neglected even by 
professed neutrals. If their cause had proved a successful 
one, we should have had without doubt a glorious place in 
the history of their struggle, for notwithstanding our seem- 
ing good behavior as a frontier city, we were watched with 
no little concern by those in authority ; and the burning of 
another Caroline, particularly if at the mouth of the Gene- 
see, would have developed our patriot-ism into such resist- 
ance to invasion, that it would not have answered to em- 
phasize the last syllable as we are perhaps permitted to do 
in reciting the stormy events of the last trouble on our 
northern border. 

MILLERISM. 

1843-44. 

There were two head centres of this fanaticism, whose 
converts soon numbered more than fifty thousand : Boston 
and Rochester. Boston sent forth the "Advent Herald," 
and Joshua Vaughn Himes, the briUiant and gifted young 
preacher of the sect called Christians, was the leader of 
the movement in the East. Joseph Marsh," who, before his 
conversion to the teachings of Father Miller, was an ani- 
mating spirit of the same sect, editing its paper, and in 
charge of its Book Concern, — writing the beginnings of its 
distinctive theological school, and pastor of a church in 
Fulton County, — came to Rochester in the spring of 1844, 
and opened in the Arcade the headquarters for the Miller- 
ite movement in the West, publishing large editions of his 
weekly paper, the "Voice of Truth," which were sown 
broadcast over this section of country, with a tide of leaf- 



252 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

lets, charts, admonitory messages, everything that zeal and 
printers' ink could furnish for the salvation of sinners whose 
time of probation was to end October 25, 1844, as could be 
proved by the simplest mathematical calculation. There 
were many believers in the speedy coming who had urged 
a focalization of effort in this locality, and who brought their 
gifts into the store-house, No. 17 Arcade, even all that they 
had, lest any should be lost in the impending conflagration 
for the lack of a simple tract or a monitory wafer. The 
money poured in, and the literature and the preachers with 
charts went forth in an increasing tide. There were daily 
meetings in old Talman Hall, now Wilder's Arcade, during 
that summer, and hundreds were baptized in the river or 
race-way. As the time drew near, the excitement increased, 
a mob of scoffers frequently making the street almost im- 
passable outside the hall. The Millerite was hooted at on 
the street, caricatured in the public prints by those whose 
hearts quaked with fear when the terrible storm came up on 
the eve of the appointed last day, and, besides making wild 
havoc with chimneys and things generally, snapped off the 
big Whig pole that stood on the Four Corners. 

The converts were by no means confined to the lowly 
and illiterate. Elder Elon Galusha, a pillar of the Baptist 
faith, went up out of Babylon, as withdrawing from the 
old church was called, and preached his new faith with 
wondrous power. George A. Avery, Carlos Dutton, John 
Hayes, Wm. E. Arnold, Miss E. C. Clemens, a gifted 
teacher at the Institute, E. C. Williams, and many more of 
equal prominence, were among the despised sect, who gave 
up all things in testimony of their certain hope. The Bap- 
tists, before any other Christian denomination, had the 
largest representation in Millerism. 

" Will I ever forget those meetings in old Talman Hall," 
writes one who as a child was kept from school that she 
might in the end be plucked as a brand from the burning. 
" How terrible it was, that believing, as we children did, 
that every day brought us inevitably nearer to the horrible 
fire. I could repeat this minute Nebuchadnezzar's dream 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 253 

and the Apocalyptic visions, and all that mathematical 
computation showing how 1843 Jewish time was 1844 Ro- 
man time, and that as true as there was a sun in the 
heavens — and I grew fairly to hate the sun — the trumpet 
would sound and the dead would rise on the tenth day of 
the seventh month, when the world would come to an end 
and sinners with it. And then the brothers and sisters 
would shout amen, and I was so glad my father was so 
good a man, for hanging on to him was my last hope." 

"This is our last issue," you may read in the "Voice of 
Truth " that October publication day believed to have been 
its last. " Before another week shall have gone by, the feet 
of our Lord shall stand upon Zion, and the wicked shall 
have been cut off." 

They did not go to Mount Hope, as has been stated, all 
clad in their ascension robes, to sit on the pinnacle height 
waiting for the trumpet to sound. They gathered in Tal- 
man Hall, and the rabble gathered outside, and the police 
finally dispersed the meeting for the city's peace. When 
the day went by, and not only the day but the month, they 
turned to their well worn Bibles and found great consola- 
tion in missing links in the chain of prophecy, in chrono- 
logical chasms, mistaken renderings of Greek text, etc. 
Hundreds were penniless, even homeless. They had staked 
all, left harvests ungarnered, given their goods to feed a 
scoffing world with tracts. " When are you going up } " 
shouted the gamins on the street corner. Let us try to 
judge them, if we are equal to the effort, independent of 
their casualty of disappointment. They had given the 
world an illustration of faith in the literal interpretation of 
the unfulfilled prophecies, and Millerism was the logical 
outcome of the theological teaching of centuries. 

The believers in the literal speedy coming soon lost their 
name of Millerite in that of Adventist and Christadelphian. 
There are two or three congregations in our city to-day, 
vigorous societies of intelligent Bible students, who are by 
no means ashamed to date the latter-day revival of their 
faith to " the '43 movement," and who reverence the names 



254 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of William Miller, Joshua Vaughn Himes,^ and Joseph 
Marsh. 

ABOLITIONISM. 

The fact that Myron Holley, the founder, organizer, and 
inspiration of the old Liberty Party, — the independent po- 
litical party whose platform had but one plank, and that the 
abolition of slavery, — lived in Rochester from 1837 to the 
time of his death in 1841, during those eventful years of his 
life when he gave his best and his all for the gospel of free- 
dom ; and that Frederick Douglass followed in his footsteps, 
and made his home among us in 1847, editing and publish- 
ing the "North Star," lecturing incessantly in our public 
halls, or inviting those of his cause to do so, giving us a 
series of notable conventions, familiarizing us with the 
faces of eminent reformers, and developing our superior ad- 
vantages as an underground railroad depot, — all this has 
justified the world in associating us with the old Abolition 
movement, even if it was not generally known that John 
Brown, of Ossawattomie, planned his raid upon Harper's 
Ferry on our southern hills. Myron Holley, Frederick 
Douglass, John Brown's raid, and our Underground Rail- 
road officials, to say nothing of the Opposition which was 
often a preponderating constituency, provokes study of the 
subject in its wide relations, and which as a part of our his- 
tory should not be neglected. 

We have had great men among our citizens, but none 
greater than Myron Holley, — statesman, politician in the 
highest sense of the word, humanitarian, and true gentle- 
man. He had retired from public life and its calumnies 
when he bought his farm of 120 acres in Carthage, 1837, 
which he named Rose Ridge, and where he raised choice 
fruits and vegetables. His customers were among our best 
citizens, and one bright woman used to say that Mr. Holley 
sold his peas and asparagus in the morning as gracefully as 
he delivered his lyceum lectures in the afternoon. Another 

1 Joshua Vaughn Ilimes, now in his eightieth year, has been for several 
years one of the most useful of the clergy on the missionary staff of the Bishop 
of Nebraska (Episcopal). 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 255 

story is told of the wife of Dr. Whitehouse, who, when she 
first came to Rochester, thinking that she had been sent 
among barbarians, amused her husband by running into his 
study one morning and saying : " I have seen a true gen- 
tleman ! He came to the basement door with vegetables ! " 
"Oh yes," mused the Doctor. "That was Myron Holley." 

It is pleasant to think of him, in that the happiest time 
of his life, wandering along the river bank with his grand- 
children, or letting them " make garden " with him after 
their own plans. " Grandpa, why don't '00 sow hair seed 
on your head t " was a story he loved to remember, as did 
many of the young people of that day his outburst against 
a sermon upon the sin of dancing: "It's as natural for 
young people to dance as for the apple-trees to blossom in 
the spring," He hated bigotry. He preached against the 
revival system in the Court House. When the studies of 
his children in school were interrupted by praying bands 
he made vigorous protest. He went about the country 
lecturing on Anti-Slavery, and finally sold Rose Ridge, put 
the money into a printing-press, started the "Freeman," 
an Abolition paper, and moved into the city. He died 
March 4, 1841, at 8 o'clock in the morning, when the bells 
were ringing and the cannon firing in honor of the inaugu- 
ration of President Harrison. The house where he died is 
still to be seen on Johnson's Park, the present residence of 
George W. Harrold. 

Grace Greenwood, then living in Rochester, was an en- 
thusiastic admirer of Myron Holley, and she wrote in after 
years how well she remembered " his grand and stately 
presence coming down the street, when the people would 
part in reverence and admiration on either side," and yet he 
was so simple, so kind. "When he lived at Rose Ridge," 
writes Elizur Wright in his " Life of Myron Holley," " his 
custom was to hold Sunday meetings in the district school- 
house. What a curious, odd audience used to gather to 
listen and look at him. Every rank in society was rep- 
resented. There was the elegant and courtly Judge Strong, 
with occasionally the ladies of his household, and the 



256 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Hookers, on rainy Sundays, . . . where they met the 
poorest day laborers. Even drunkards and outcasts did not 
feel themselves excluded from the all-embracing humanity 
of these ministrations." 

" It was not an uncommon thing for families," wrote his 
daughter, " too degraded by intemperance and vice to ven- 
ture to ask a clergyman, to send for my father to officiate 
at their funerals. They saw, in their daily intercourse with 
him, that his divine tenderness took them all in." 

Myron Holley's Liberty Party called out a poem, very 
popular with those who cast their presidential votes for 
James Gillespie Birney in 1840. 

" Will ye despise the streamlet 
Upon the mountain side, 
Ye broad and mighty rivers 
On sweeping to the tide .' 



" And so shall wax the party, 
Now feeble in its birth, 
Till liberty shall cover 
This tyrant-ridden earth." 



Frederick Douglass, in speaking of his locating in Roch- 
ester in 1847, after his return from England, where the 
price of his freedom had been raised in British gold, ;^I50 
sterling, says : " The ground had been prepared for me by 
the labors of others, notably by Hon. Myron Holley. I 
know of no place in the Union where I could have located 
with less resistance, or received a larger measure of sym- 
pathy and cooperation." The New York "Herald" advised 
us, we remember, to throw the Nigger printing-press into 
Lake Ontario, and banish Douglass to Canada. But, on 
the contrary, the little band of Abolitionists, one can al- 
most count them on their fingers, flocked to the standard. 
There was Lindley Murray Moore, Isaac and Amy Post, 
Wm. Hallowell, Wra. S. Falls, Samuel D. Porter, Wm. C. 
Bloss, Benj. Fish, Asa Anthony, Grove S. Gilbert, Nelson 
Bostwick, Joseph Marsh, E. C. Williams, George A. Avery, 
John Kedzie, Thomas James, Isaac Gibbs, and some others. 
William A. Reynolds permitted Corinthian Hall to be used 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 257 

for Anti-Slavery lectures every Sunday evening for an en- 
tire winter ; the ladies held fairs in Minerva Hall, had sew- 
ing societies, oyster suppers, etc., and even those who held 
frigidly aloof from such radical reformers were not dis- 
pleased when noted foreigners, like Frederika Bremer, went 
out of their way to visit Frederick Douglass, of Rochester. 
It is something to remember that we had him here when 
the Fugitive Slave Bill was passed, and that the fullness of 
his indignation, his contempt of compromising legislation, 
the highest attainment of his eloquence, was listened to by 
those who packed the hall where he was to speak. Shall 
we ever forget one scene in Corinthian Hall, — a breath- 
less crowd, for Douglass was hurling out anathema against 
the Bill. "Is there a man here who dares to say he has 
the right to sell his brother .? " A voice clearly responded, 
"I do." In an instant every eye saw the speaker, — the 
finger of Douglass pointing him out as he stood, one of the 
outermost tier against the white background. " Turn your 
face to the wall then ! " in withering tones, that must have 
made its owner wish he had kept silent. 

It was well known that Rochester was doing a great 
business at underground railroading in those years, but the 
officials were too circumspect for detection. We never had 
a disturbance on the street, growing out of the aid given to 
fugitives, nor was a fugitive ever retaken from Rochester, 
although the adventures of the agents, considering the pen- 
alties for harboring or aiding a runaway slave, were never 
without risk and daring that would make a very entertain- 
ing volume of itself. 

Frederick Douglass, who was in secret communication 
with the leading Anti-Slavery people in all parts of the 
country, was the superintendent of this terminus of the road, 
but careful watching failed in discovering the same. " It 
was like attempting to bale out the ocean with a teaspoon," 
he writes, " but the thought that there was one slave less, 
and one freeman more, was unspeakable joy." He knew 
where to hide the fugitives, and who would get them off 
safely. There was the sail-loft of E. C. Williams; Dr. 
17 



25 S ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Clark's quiet home on Monroe Street ; the farm-houses of 
the Anthonys and the De Garmos ; and Isaac Post's barn, 
— parlor, for that matter, if it was not full already. " The 
most we ever had at any one time was twelve," said Amy 
Post, whose house on North Sophia Street has ever been 
the hottest place in our reputed "hot-house for isms" — so 
many reforms, agitations, and new questions have been 
furthered in its parlors. " They were brought to me with- 
out a word of warning one Saturday, and they stayed over 
Sunday. They were so happy to think they were so far 
north, so near Canada, we had hard work to keep them out 
of sight. . , . Many a time I have crept out to the barn 
after dark with a basket of food, and seen a black man or 
woman creep out from the hay, so frightened, to take it." 
Wm. S. P'alls, in an interesting disclosure of what used to 
be done here for fugitives by persons unsuspected of Anti- 
Slavery proclivities, says : " The poor creatures were usu- 
ally penniless. ... 1 used to solicit donations in the Arcade, 
and our citizens would give freely. Uncle Dave Richard- 
son, of Henrietta, never refused. Once E. C. Williams and 
myself, while passing on our way to dinner on the east side 
of the river, each taking a side of Main Street, collected 
all we needed. The railroad fare only of the refugees was 
paid by the agents in the several States from funds raised 
in England." 

"I remember," says an old neighbor of Frederick Doug- 
lass, " that sometimes father and the horse and wagon 
would drive away early in the evening and be gone all 
night. We never asked any questions, nor saw him go if 
we could avoid it, but he would be remarkably cheery at^ 
breakfast, and possibly let out something if we pressed him 
hard, but that was against the rule. The excitement was 
like that of living on a smuggling coast." 

P'rederick Douglass had removed from Alexander Street, 
near East Avenue, to his suburban home on the hill-side, 
south of the city, when John Brown became his guest, and 
confided to him the plans for the famous raid upon Harper's 
Ferry. " His whole time and thought was given to the sub- 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 259 

ject," says Douglass. "It was the first thing in the morning 
and the last thing at night, till I confess it began to be some- 
thing of a bore. . . . Soon after coming to me, he asked me 
to get for him two smoothly planed boards upon which he 
could iliustrate with a pair of dividers, by a drawing, the 
plan of fortification which he meant to adopt in the moun- 
tains. ... I was less interested in these drawings than 
my children were." He wrote many letters to Anti-Slavery 
leaders during this memorable visit, and a constitution for 
the government of the Mountain Refuge, — a constitution 
which each man who joined him should be sworn to honor 
and support. Some of the ramblers over those hills be- 
tween Mount Hope and the pinnacle at that time may have 
met the grizzly-bearded, rather seedy old man, who had 
much of the vigor of youth apparently, and possibly they 
queried idly what he could be thinking so deeply about, 
little dreaming his was a spirit that should go marching on 
through the ages, — a name that should resound from sea 
to sea. 

When Rochester, with every city and hamlet in the land, 
was stunned and overwhelmed by the assassination of 
Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, perhaps before all 
others, gave utterance to the fullness of our sorrow. Many 
of us can remember how all eyes followed him as he passed 
down the Main Street, that funeral day, for unconsciously 
we gave him the place of chief mourner. He had no word 
of greeting, — only a hand pressure for his nearest friends. 

" Our citizens," he wrote in his autobiography, " not 
knowing what else to do in the agony of the hour, betook 
themselves to the City Hall. Though all hearts ached for 
utterance, few felt like speaking. , . . No speech could rise 
to the level of feeling. Doctor Robinson, then of Rochester 
University, but now of Brown University, Providence, R. I., 
was prevailed upon to take the stand, and made one of the 
most touching and eloquent speeches I ever heard. At 
the close of his address I was called upon, and spoke out 
of the fullness of my heart, and happily I gave expression to 
so much of the soul of the people present, that my voice 



2Co ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL.' 

was several times utterly silenced by the sympathetic 
tumult of the great audience. I had resided long in Roch- 
ester, and had made many speeches there which had more 
or less touched the hearts of my hearers, but never till this 
day was I brought into such close accord with them. We 
shared in common a terrible calamity, and this touch of 
nature made us more than countrymen, — it made us kin." 

In the summer of 1872 the house on the hill-side where 
John Brown planned his raid, and where the valuable papers 
of its owner were treasured, was destroyed by fire. There- 
upon Mr. Douglass removed his family to Washington, 
D. C, where he had been engaged in public life, more or 
less, for several years. 

A bust of Frederick Douglass, the work of our eminent 
artist, Johnson M. Mundy, and considered a superior like- 
ness and work of art, was the gift of the citizens of Roch- 
ester to its University, and holds an honored place in 
Sibley Hall. *' Frederick Douglass," said the " Democrat 
and Chronicle," upon the occasion of its unveiling, " can 
hardly be said to have risen to greatness on account of the 
opportunities which the Republic offers to self-made men. 
. . . For him it builded no school-house, and for him it 
erected no church, . , . Rochester is proud to remember 
that Frederick Douglass was for many years one of her 
citizens. . . . Douglass must rank among the greatest men, 
not only of this city, but of the nation as well : great in 
gifts, greater in utilizing them ; great in his inspiration, 
greater in his efforts for humanity ; great in the persuasion 
of his speech, greater in the purpose that informed it," 

woman's rights. 

Whenever the veterans of Woman's Rights Reform shall 
proclaim unto what cities in the land the palm of preced- 
ence for battling for universal suffrage shall be given, 
Rochester will be accorded only an average palm, and she 
might lose that, only for her association with the movement 
in the active part she has taken in the Anti-Slavery, Tem- 
perance, and other reforms, in which women have been the 




Ko^*br&EPar.me ,vC-t11X 




'C<,^<^^_,^y^C 



^, 




THE ISMS CHARGE. 26 1 

inspiration and chief workers. Her approval of the radical 
features of the movement has been reserved, and her con- 
servatism has oftener chilled than inspired the heroic band 
who brought the second Woman's Rights Convention held 
in the State to our Unitarian Church in the summer of 1848, 
who appeared on our streets in the Bloomer dress, and who 
marched to the polls in 1872 and voted, or tried to vote. 
The mere fact that Susan B. Anthony lives in Rochester 
has gone a great way towards making us prominent in the 
movement. Her popularity in her old home, even among 
those not committed to her cause, has accomplished what a 
series of radical conventions might have defeated. Our 
charitable institutions are almost entirely managed by wo- 
men. The preponderating majority of our public school 
teachers are women, and the question of having women on 
the school board has been agitated. That women should 
be represented among the managers of the House of Ref- 
uge has also been publicly advised with favorable hearing. 
Almost every religious denomination has its missionary 
society where women preside, make addresses, do excel- 
lent committee work, and even open the services without 
calling in a man to offer prayer. And yet a little more 
than thirty years ago, when Rochester gave cold hospital- 
ity to its first Woman's Rights Convention, and Susan B. 
Anthony, then a teacher in the Academy of Canajoharie, 
laughed heartily at the novelty and presumption, the popu- 
lar sentiment was in full accord with what the press, as a 
rule, said of " the insurrection among the women." . . . "It 
was a regular emeiitc of a congregation of females gathered 
from various quarters," said the Rochester " Democrat," 
"who seem to be really in earnest in their aim at revolu- 
tion, and who evince entire confidence that the day of their 
deliverance is at hand." ..." Let the women keep the 
ball moving," said the " Daily Advertiser," " so bravely 
started by those who have become tired of the restraints 
imposed upon them by the antediluvian notions of a Paul 
or the tyranny of man," quotations proving to us to-day the 
capriciousness in the teachings of our leading journals. 



262 ROCHESTER. A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Susan B. Anthony has been called the Napoleon of the 
Woman's Rights Movement. Her coadjutor, Elizabeth 
Cady Stanton, if not a Rochester woman, has a former 
Rochester man for a husband. To Susan B. Anthony the 
women of the State of New York are largely indebted for 
the passage of the property bill, and the concession of 
other civil rights, to gain which she traveled for years in 
stage-coaches, open wagons, and sleighs, in all seasons, and 
even on foot from door to door, lecturing wherever she 
could find hearing, "doing her uttermost," according to 
Mrs. Stanton, "to rouse women to some sense of their 
natural rights as human beings, and to their civil and po- 
litical rights as citizens of a republic. ... It was only 
through petitions that women could as a disfranchised class 
be heard in the national councils;" and to impress them 
with the disadvantages of their disenfranchisement she has 
lectured incessantly, counting ridicule, weariness, and dis- 
couragement as naught if the object of her labor might be 
won at last. Her Rochester home for many years was on 
a little farm on Genesee Street. For the last twenty years 
or more she has lived in the unostentatious but roomy 
house on Madison Street, with her sister. Miss Mary An- 
thony, who has been for many years a principal in our public 
schools. Miss Anthony's religious associations are with the 
Unitarian society. She has ever been a prompt assistant 
in every good work, and particularly efScient in the temper- 
ance cause. Through her energy the Red Cross Society 
was founded here in 1881, and so well organized that it has 
been the banner society of the country, in quick and gener- 
ous response ; leading the president of the national society, 
Clara Barton, to say of it in her paper before the American 
Social Science Association, 1882: "The Red Cross Society 
of Rochester, within less than a year of its organization, 
has contributed over fourteen thousand dollars in material 
and money to the relief of sufferers by calamity. It should 
be said that the incipient movement towards the formation 
of this magnificent society, as well as that of Syracuse, was 
made by Rev. Dr. Graccy, the noted missionary to India, 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 263 

now Presiding Elder of the Methodist Diocese of the Dis- 
trict of Rochester, and one of the earliest and most efficient 
friends of the Red Cross. ... It is a fact worthy of men- 
tion that the munificent contribution of one eminent citi- 
zen, through the Rochester society, of ten thousand dollars 
in seeds for planting the desolated district, was rendered 
doubly, trebly valuable, by the rapidity and precision with 
which it was distributed through the organized societies of 
the Red Cross. The slow decline of water having delayed 
the planting, great haste was necessary in order to secure 
any return from the land the present year ; . . . within three 
days the seed was on its way to the Red Cross Society of 
Memphis ; . . . within twenty-four hours after its arrival in 
Memphis, it was re-sorted and re-shipped to the proper 
points in five different States. . . . Thousands of acres 
were enriched, and thousands of persons fed, as the result 
of that one act of well arranged generosity." It is hardly 
necessary to add that the giver of the seed was Hiram Sib- 
ley, and that its transportation was attended to by him in- 
dividually. 

When Miss Anthony, after long years of hard and ill re- 
quited labor, as far as pecuniary accumulation was con- 
cerned, was induced to take a bit of an outing in Europe, 
her Rochester friends sent the following testimonial to the 
public meeting held in her honor in Philadelphia on the 
eve of her departure. 

TESTIMONIAL TO SUSAN B. ANTHONY. 

Rochester, New York, the home of Susan B. Anthony, by this 
open letter, signed by old friends and neighbors, adherents to her 
cause — and those who are not — would unite with all who honor 
the birthday of its " true citizen," and express the sincere wish 
that Miss Anthony, in her sojourn in strange lands, may find what 
she has in full measure at home, — a genuine appreciation of her 
true womanliness, her sturdy adherence to honest conviction, and 
her heroic stand against all opposition to her untiring efforts for 
the enfranchisement and the higher education of woman. 

Wishing her God speed and safe return, we, the undersigned, 
do not need to assure her that neither the triumphs nor defeats 



264 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of her future public life will change our estimate of her, for to us 
she will ever remain what her life among us has proved her to be, 
a good, true woman, self-consecrated to the cause of woman in 
every land. [Signed.] 

H. R. Selden, M. B. Anderson, A. C. Kendrick, E. M. Moore, 
N. M. Mann, Myron Adams, Charles E, Fitch, S. H. Lowe, Her- 
man C Riggs, James L. Angle, C. Fred Farlin, Willet E. Post, 
Asa Saxe, P. H. Curtis, J. A. Hinds, Samuel Wilder, John H. 
Rochester, F. S. Rew, C. S. Dolley, M. D., Ezra B. Bork, C. H. 
True, J. A. Stull, G. T. Parker, John S. Morgan, D. W. Shuart, 
C. R. Parsons, Daniel T. Hunt, D. M. Dewey, D. W. Powers, 
William N. Emerson, Eliza J. Hinds, Mary J. Chace, C. A. Brace, 
Melissa Farrar, Mary M. Heard, Mrs. J. S. Ellis, H. M. Miller, 
F. B. Allen, Elizabeth P. Hall, Sarah L. Willis, Mary H. Hallo- 
well, Mrs. James Sargeant, Jenny Marsh Parker, Sarah R. A. 
Dolley, M. D., Anna H. Searing, M. D., Amy Post, E. C Angle, 
Josie E. Post, A. L. Chappell, F. C. Marsh, M. L. Leydon, Laura 
Farley, E. D. Porter, L. Ramsdall, L. C. Smith, C. H. Saxe, S. H. 
Fish, M. D. Fenner, S. Vandenbeck, Elizabeth Mott, P. K. Hal- 
lowell, C. M. Curtis, Mrs. N. M. Mann, Mrs. William Streeter, 
Mr. and Mrs. A. C Allen, Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Harris, Sarah 
Blackall, M. K. Boyd, Caroline Haskell, Jessie Post, Huldah 
Anthony, Belle H. Hooker, Mrs. M. A. Harrington, Mrs. L. C. 
Hough, M. J, Ballentine, E. Lathrop, Augusta B. Gould, Mary 
Reid. 

Many of Miss Anthony's friends were denied the pleas- 
ure of signing this testimonial, as but a single day, and a 
stormy one at that, was given for obtaining the signatures. 
Her first vacation was spent among her co-workers in Eng- 
land and on the Continent ; meetings were held in her 
honor, and there was no end of receptions and compliments 
for our distinguished townswoman, who, since her return 
last fall (1883), has been engaged with Mrs. Stanton in 
writing a History of Woman's Suffrage. 

" The growing good of the world," says George Eliot, 
"is partly dependent on un-historic acts; . . . that things 
are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is 
half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden 
life." . . . This truth finds illustration in what has been 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 265 

attained for the advancement of woman by the quiet inno- 
vators, women who never spoke from a suffrage platform, 
and are shy of suffrage conventions, but who believe that 
the world belongs to those who take it ; and that if their 
rightful portion is in following any profession or calling for 
which they are fitted, it matters little what Mrs. Grundy 
may say, or if their rate of progress is not reported in the 
papers. Such a woman, Emma Sellew Roberts, passed 
through our University, and graduated one of the best 
Greek scholars the institution has sent forth, and the foun- 
dations of the earth were not removed. Others have en- 
gaged in business, and been eminently successful. We have 
had no women aspirants for legal honors, nor has a single 
one permitted Reverend to be written before her name, 
unless it be the truly Reverend Mother Hieronymo, who 
may wear the title as fittingly as any one upon whom it was 
ever bestowed, — the founder of St. Mary's Hospital, the 
Mother Superior for many years of St. Patrick's Orphan 
Asylum, and the present venerable head and inspiration of 
the Home of Industry, another institution of her founding. 

It is in the medical profession that Rochester women 
have taken an honored place. 

Thirty -three years ago, when Sarah R. Adamson re- 
ceived her degree of doctor of medicine from the Central 
Medical College domiciled in Minerva Hall and adjoining 
rooms, she was one of the first women upon whom such 
honor had been conferred, Elizabeth Blackwell having grad- 
uated from the Geneva College in 1849 after an ordeal that 
made Miss Adamson's decision to follow in her footsteps a 
heroic crusade against prejudice and established custom. 
The first application made by the brave Quaker girl for 
collegiate advantages was to the Philadelphia College of 
Medicine. Refused. The Jefferson Medical College hears 
her firm knock upon its door. No admittance. One after 
another of the medical schools listened to her sensible plea 
for admission, only to say her nay. That women should be 
taught the science of medicine was not denied, but the 
propriety of their attending lectures, — that was the lion in 



266 ROCHESTER: A STORY IirSTORICAL. 

the way. A private tutor was obtained, and Miss Adamson 
was progressing when the Central Medical College of New 
York, at Syracuse, sent out the remarkable advertisement 
that women would be received as students. This college 
was removed to Rochester in the spring of 1850. Among 
the ladies who studied with Miss Adamson were Rachel 
Gleason, well known by her long connection with the El- 
mira Water Cure, and her valuable book, "Talks with my 
Patients," and Mrs. L. N. Fowler, of New York. The 
young physician spent a year in Blockley Hospital, Phil- 
adelphia, the only woman ever accorded the privilege of 
studying in its wards as a physician. Her marriage with 
Dr. L. C. Dolley, in 1852, and the choosing of Rochester 
for their home gave us a leading physician among women, — 
one who has ever been an honor to the profession she has 
chosen, more than realizing the expectations of her friends. 
In one of her vacations in Europe she gave several months 
to Clinics in the Hospital des Enfans Malades, Paris, the 
only woman in a class of students, who felt honored by her 
presence and testified their respect in many ways. As a 
lecturer before classes of medical students of her own sex 
she is much in demand, but is not easily persuaded to de- 
viate from her rule of life, which makes the regular duties 
of her practice the limitations of her professional calling. 
Many of her numerous students are filling posts of useful- 
ness and honor. Sensitively averse to conspicuousness, she 
has been the quiet, almost unseen, leader of an important 
advance movement for woman, and that not only in med- 
icine, but in other departments. She is President of the 
Society of Natural Sciences, "The Fortnightly," a Woman's 
Chib, a Missionary Society, and is one of the Executive 
Board of the Red Cross. Her home on East Avenue is 
headquarters for scientific classes and committee meetings. 
Her associate, Dr. Anna H. Scaring, an accomplished phy- 
sician and a skillful microscopist, is the author of several 
papers upon scientific subjects, showing deep research and 
study. 

There are now at least eight women in Rochester prac- 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 26/ 

ticing medicine, with fairly earned diplomas from colleges of 
good^tanding. We have also a School for the Training of 
Nurses at the City Hospital, of which Dr. Wm. S. Ely said 
in his commencement address : " The establishment of the 
Training School has proved an inestimable advantage to 
the Hospital.- It has given us tact, refinement, and skill in 
the care of public and private patients. For the training 
in question we have thus far admitted only women. It has 
been universally conceded that women are especially fitted 
for the duties of the sick-room. While the advisability of 
their undertaking the work of doctors, lawyers, and preach- 
ers is not fully settled, there has never been any doubt as 
to their superiority in ministering to the sick, suffering, 
and dying." 

Perhaps it may be settled beyond dispute that the women 
of Rochester, as a whole, have conservative ideas regarding 
their enfranchisement, and that any discontent with their 
political limitations will be manifest in a quiet, steady ad- 
vance into fields of usefulness where superior service will 
prove their fitness in aiding in the management of munic- 
ipal and political affairs, as well as educational and reform- 
atory. If the memorial endowment of the Hon. Lewis H. 
Morgan should in time add a college for women to our 
University, there will be no lack of students in its halls, — 
women who believe that their true advancement is through 
the education that fits them for any sphere of usefulness. 

" THE KNOCKINGS." 

It was a haunted house in Hydesville, Wayne County, 
where they began. Rap — rap — rap, first in one room, 
then in another. Searching did not solve the mystery. 
Family after family moved out. There was a story of a 
murdered peddler, — of a grave in the cellar, — and the won- 
der is how John D. Fox, of Rochester, ever moved into the 
old house at all that December day, 1847, with his wife and 
two daughters, Margaretta and Kate. Not until March, 
1848, did they hear the mysterious noises, the cause of 
which they bravely sought to discover, it is afifirmed by good 



268 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

witnesses. At last Katie, hardly more than a child, began 
questioning the rappings, and having opened what seemed 
intelligent communication, suggested the use of the alpha- 
bet, which was readily accepted by an approving rap, and 
that was the beginning of what the believers in Spiritualism 
call the science of materialization, — the fulfillment of the 
prophecies of the seers among the Shakers and clairvoy- 
ants, that communion between the seen and the unseen 
world would soon be accomplished. 

The report of the strange noises soon spread abroad. 
The house was filled day and night with the credulous and 
the incredulous. A daughter of Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fish, living 
in Rochester, hurried to Hydesville. The world was mak- 
ing fun of her poor old father. She would put a stop to it. 
She returned bringing the family with her, and the rappings 
as well. Family and rappings settled in a house on Troup 
Street, between Eagle and Washington. Mr. Fox, a poor 
man, was distressed rather than elated by the publicity 
given to his family, who were beset by a crowd of visitors 
in season and out of season, and could attend to nothing 
else. Amy Post was the first to urge upon Mrs. Fox the 
asking of a fee from those seeking communications, which 
Mrs. Fox and her daughters were most unwilling to do, 
anticipating the accusation that would be made. Finally, 
five persons decided to give the subject candid and thor- 
ough examination, and to expose the fraud if it was one. 
They would meet at the house of Mrs. Fox one evening 
each week, insisting on paying fifty cents each. The names 
of the five may be considered as representing the nucleus 
of Modern Spiritualism. They are Isaac and Amy Post, 
R. D. Jones, John E. Robinson, George Willetts. The 
communications received through the alphabet soon con- 
vinced the five that they were in direct communication with 
the departed. A message from the mother of Isaac Post to 
her son may be interesting as one of the first that shaped 
the organization : "Isaac, my son, thy feeling is not exactly 
right towards low spirits, as thee calls them.- A reforma- 
tion is going on in the spirit world, and these spirits seek 



H 



■i 




^^t^ 



■^J J'Tjy-A.-H.Eitaa' 



Ali:z:z^ 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 269 

the company of honest men Hke you. It will do them great 
good and thee no harm." 

Among the early converts to the faith that the rappings 
were spiritual communications, the first signs of the dawn of 
a new dispensation, were, besides those above named, Lyman 
Granger, Henry Bush, Benjamin and Angelina Fish, John 
Kedzie, Edward Jones, Lewis Burtis, Nathaniel Draper, 
Rev. Charles Hammond, Schuyler Moses, and Dr. J. Gates. 
Regular meetings were held, investigation challenged, and 
manifestations, quite beyond the credulity of the average 
public, were reported, surpassing anything the world had 
heard of before. The public exhibitions in Corinthian Hall 
where such men as Dr. H. H. Langworthy, Hon. Frederic 
Whittlesey, D. C. McCallum, William Fisher, Daniel Marsh, 
A. Judson, Nathaniel Clark, etc., acted as committees of 
investigation only to report, after experiments and severe 
tests, that they were unable to explain the mystery, made 
many converts to Spiritualism, although there was no lack 
of opposing theories, claiming that the sounds were pro- 
duced by electricity, a cunning manipulation of the toe 
joints, or mechanical appliances, while one sage is reported 
to have accounted for the mystery in the vibrations of the 
Genesee Falls. A pamphlet " History of the Mysterious 
Noises heard at Rochester and other places, supposed to be 
Spiritual Communications, together with many Psycholog- 
ical Facts and New Developments," published by D. M. 
Dewey, had the enormous sale of some thirty thousand 
copies in a few months, and the closing sentence of its fair 
treatment of the subject cannot yet be gainsaid : "Those 
who put down the knockings as a shallow humbug had bet- 
ter try the depths of their brains in exposing them. Hum- 
bug it very possibly is, but it will stand severer tests than 
will many things which pass for sober realities." 

To comprehend the outcome of " Katie Fox's daring to 
question a spook," as Spiritualists still speak of the little 
girl's first half-frightened venture at a conversation, one 
has only to look at any recent issue of their most widely 
circulated journal, " The Banner of Light: An Exponent 



270 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of the Spiritual Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century," 
whose readers are counted by thousands in every State of 
the Union. It is all an evolution of the Rochester rap- 
pings : these inspirational lectures from Thomas Paine 
and others, through mediums ; these reports of seances in 
which the departed chat with their friends, and even play 
upon the piano ; this column of spiritualist lecturers, and a 
page or more of spirit messages. Among the advertise- 
ments of magnetic remedies, the Writing Planchette, and 
Mediums, Medical and Trance ; inspirational songs, and 
such headings as " Soul-Reading ; " " Predictive and Med- 
ical Astrology ; " " Rules to be observed when forming 
Spiritual Circles ; " " Bible Myths," and " My Affinity and 
other Stories," etc., etc., we find a modest advertisement, 
which reads : — 

" Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, after a long period of dis- 
abling illness, now resumes the exercise of her mediumship, 
begun in Hydesville, on the 31st of March, 1848. Seances 
held at 231 East 13th Street, New York," etc. 

The Fox family moved to New York soon after the or- 
ganization in Rochester of a society of believers in the sci- 
ence of materialization, and " the Fox girls," as they are 
universally called, have seen much of the world they have 
so deeply agitated. Catherine is living in England, the 
wife of an English barrister. Margaretta's little book, 
" The Love Life of Dr. Kane," was written to establish the 
fact of her marriage with that famous explorer, the asser- 
tion of his family to the contrary. Spiritualists the world 
over commemorate with perfect accord the anniversary of 
March 31, 1848, when in Rochester, '' iJic BctJiIchcvi of the 
new dispensation," the possibility of intelligent communica- 
tion with the unseen world was demonstrated. At the cel- 
ebration of the last anniversary in Boston, where Margaret 
Fox Kane was believed to be the medium of Benjamin 
Franklin, the knockings are reported to have been precisely 
similar to those heard in Rochester thirty-six years before. 

Now, admitting with this review of our relation to Mil- 



THE ISMS CHARGE. 2/1 

lerism, Abolitionism, Spiritualism, and other radical move- 
ments, that Rochester has been favorable soil for the 
germs of agitation, it is surely not to our discredit, consid- 
ering what the ultimation of these movements has been. 
If " everything is its opposite," as Hegel would teach, and 
if we estimate our influence in the world not only by our 
tide of isms but by their contradictions, why should we re- 
sent the charge, "the hot-bed of isms," or make defense 
against it ? 

Rochester has been the mirror of Boston in many things, 
in its earlier days particularly. Whatever Boston essayed 
as the east, Rochester attempted for the west. Because 
William Lloyd Garrison was publishing the " Liberator " in 
Boston, Frederick Douglass decided to carry his English 
printing-press to Rochester. And so of several other move- 
ments. In one we have been noticeably amiss in following 
the example of our seeming pattern. Swedenborgianism 
has never been preached here, unless it was in the declin- 
ing days of one of its chief apostles, the Rev. George Bush, 
the distinguished commentator, and author of many stand- 
ard theological, historical, and scientific works, who came 
to Rochester to die, in 1859, and whose grave is on the 
western slope of the pinnacle at Mount Hope. Abelard 
Reynolds and Joseph Field were, for many years before 
their death, readers at least of New Church doctrine ; but 
the Church of the New Jerusalem, so large and influential 
in Boston and other cities, has never had visible root in 
Rochester. Nor may explanation be found in the occu- 
pancy of the ground by Spiritualism ; for has it not been 
said that Spiritualism is the materializing of spiritual 
things, while Swedenborgianism is the spiritualizing of ma- 
terial things .'' 



2/2 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



XVIII. 

MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE, 

I. Powers Buildings. — 2. Comets and Nebula;. — 3. Museums made to Or- 
der. — 4. Outlying Honors. — 5. Specialties. — 6. Monumental. — 7. He- 
brew Reformers. — 8. Honorary Roll. — 9. Pundits and Jurists. — 10. Fish 
Culture. — II. Promontories. — 12. Mutes and Delinquents. — 13. A. D. 
1883. — 14. Unwritten Chapters. 

Gradgrind's Stern rule of life, " Facts, sir ; we want 
nothing but facts," is never more inadequate than when ap- 
plied to a building like that on our Four Corners to-day, — 
the site of Hamlet Scrantom's log-cabin in 18 12. Too 
many of us are like Sissy Jupe, and can get no idea of a 
horse whatever from the bare facts alone that he is a 
"quadruped, graminivorous, has forty teeth, twenty-four 
grinders, four eye-teeth, twelve incisive, sheds his teeth and 
his coat, and must be shod with iron." The statistics of 
Powers Buildings, — the tons of marble, iron, and glass used 
in their construction, the exact height to an inch from side- 
walk to top of flag-staff; an accurate description of the 
wonderful basement, where there is machinery enough to 
run a steam-ship; the three elevators, the electric lights, 
nine acres of flooring and a mile of marble wainscoting, 
the cost of the buildings and keeping of them in order and 
repair, — to leave unmentioned the Art Gallery whose sta- 
tistics alone are a little volume, — leaves the most inter- 
ested reader who has never seen Powers Block much in 
the condition Sissy Jupe had been in pondering over that 
definition of a horse, if her father had not belonged "to the 
horse riding, if you please, sir." 

A sood jjuide-book is a most valuable contribution to lit- 
erature, but it cannot fully take the place of a trip to Eu- 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 273 

rope. So any description of Powers Buildings — and no 
better one can be given than the entertaining and accurate 
one by A. A. Hopkins' " The Powers Fire-Proof Commer- 
cial and Fine Art Buildings," something more than mere 
fact, with no lack of painstaking statistics and intelligent 
detail — must fail to convey the impression the visitor re- 
ceives from actual sight of their magnitude, elegance of 
structure and finish, grand staircases, broad corridors, the 
view from the tower, the rare and costly art treasures, and 
system of government, — for of many a historical potentate 
less executive ability, foresight, and practical wisdom, to 
say nothing of financial engineering, was demanded, than is 
required of Daniel W. Powers. And when it is remembered 
that the buildings and all their belongings are the evolu- 
tion of his industry and business enterprise, the interest in 
the buildings becomes secondary to that in the man ; an in- 
terest heightened by the fact that he is, without exception, 
the most popular and influential man on our streets, the 
best known to rich and poor, — every child can point him 
out and gain his cheery greeting, — and not only the life 
of the great buildings that are the focal centre of our city, 
but also of our leading public institutions, civic projects, 
and best social life, — the man from whom outflows a strong 
tide of blessing, finding its way into many an otherwise dry 
channel. "How could you give up your beautiful grounds 
to be trampled over by such a crowd } " expostulated one 
whose park-like domain will never be thrown open for a 
Fete Champetre for Hospital or Home for the Friendless, 
on one of those evenings when East Avenue was almost 
impassable with the crowd flocking to see, from the outside 
at least, the gay booths, the lanterns, the fireworks, and all 
the fine folk on the Powers lawn, the happy host himself 
the busiest, most approachable man in the crowd. " Don't 
you see what the damage will be.?" "This is just what 
they are made for," was the response. "This is my way of 
getting the most out of them." What was a litter on the 
morrow, a few square feet of fresh sodding, and the loss 
even of valuable shrubbery, to all that enjoyment of which 
18 



2/4 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

he, perhaps, was receiving the fullest share after all. Pos- 
session alone gives him little satisfaction. He must put his 
possessions to their best use ; and that, he believes, is in 
making them of use to others. That idea gave us the Art 
Gallery, — those suites of magnificent salons, large, ex- 
quisitely furnished and decorated, their walls hung with 
the best copies of the Old Masters and the works of the 
most famous modern artists, and the largest collection of 
stereoscopic views, — the privilege of enjoying the very 
best our city's generous benefactor could buy of sculptor or 
painter, — and that for the pittance of a fee that would be 
dispensed with entirely, so incommensurate is it to meet 
the expense even of the lighting on reception evenings, 
only that a certain barrier must be maintained against 
those in every community who would never pay a quarter 
to see what they could not handle, if not carry away. But 
the idea that gives the Art Gallery and the semi-weekly 
evening receptions, and a reception surpassing everything 
of the kind whenever a distinguished stranger is the city's 
guest, finds its characteristic expression in the Free Art 
Gallery in the public corridors and rotunda, — the corridor 
lined with stuffed birds, some two hundred cases ; magnifi- 
cent specimens, two hundred from Monroe County alone, 
— an exhibition surpassing in extent and the quality of its 
paintings and engravings that of many hidden in a rich 
man's private collection and highly rated for exceptional 
superiority. There are comfortable, even luxurious seats 
provided for those who would sit in the rotunda, where 
they can distinctly hear the music of the wonderful orches- 
trion, — flute, viol, bassoon, violin, triangle, and cornets, all 
playing together by subtle autonomy, and standard compo- 
sitions at that, — for Mr. Powers gives the people high art 
in music as in everything else, — and gaze at "Adam and 
Eve reluctantly leaving Paradise," or Hubner's " Betrayal 
of Christ," " Cleopatra drinking her Pearl," water-scenes 
by Delacroix, Cole's "Voyage of Life," or what never es- 
capes much study from the uncultured, although there is 
an endless variety of works of genuine art in its neighbor- 



S 3i S^ O 
it ^ Z 



03 cg_ ^ 




MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 2/5 

hood, " The Massacre of the Innocents," an exhibition of 
realism at least illustrating its school. 

Drop into the Art Gallery any pleasant afternoon, and 
seat yourself in the reception room and study the visitors, 
if you would form an idea of what the munificence of its 
founder is doing for the public, and those whose art education 
has been largely confined to reading about art and artists ; 
who may never go to Europe, but who, in the gallery, soon 
become adepts in calling the pictures by the artists' names, 
in pointing out their good qualities as well as defects, and in 
using the technical terms of artists. " I believe I know as 
much about famous places in Europe," said a lady who fre- 
quents the Art Gallery, and "goes across," without sea- 
sickness or trouble with luggage, once or twice a month, by 
merely looking into the stereoscopes, "as many persons 
who tire themselves to death and spend a fortune for what 
Mr. Powers makes possible for twenty-five cents a trip. I 
have been in Italy the livelong afternoon, stared at the 
Pope and his cardinals until I knew what each one of 
them thought about the dogma of Infallibility, — wandered 
through the ruins of Pompeii, sailed over the Bay of Naples, 
climbed up Mount Vesuvius, and have seen nearly every- 
thing worth seeing in the Vatican, and all to the music of 
master composers. Next week I am going to India, un- 
less I put off the trip for a close study of the etchings and 
water-colors, for you must know that Mr. Powers has given 
us a famous collection, — four salons of water-colors alone, 
— many of them by our own artist, Lockhart." 

The growth of our Art Gallery — the continual accession 
of new salons, each distinguished not only for works of 
art but some marked feature of tapestry or decoration — 
has long since made the general surv^ey of a single visit a 
serious matter of several hours, while months may be spent 
in the careful study of the various art treasures, the statu- 
ary, the rare vases, the etchings, the water-colors, the hand- 
painted decorations of Mr. Miller, and the best copies this 
country can give of many of the Old Masters. The third 
real copy ever made of the Sistine " Madonna " hangs in 



276 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the Green Room, with copies of Raphael's " Madonna," 
several Murillos, Titian's "Magdalene," Carlo Dolci's " Ma- 
donna," Michael Angelo's " Three Fates," and other famous 
pictures. Artists are no longer allowed to copy the Sistine 
" Madonna," and Mr. Hopkins tells the story of Mr. Powers' 
success in getting this one as follows : — 

" I had great difficulty in securing this," said Mr. Powers 
to me once, as I sat admiring it in the strong afternoon 
light so necessary to full revelation. " I had seen copies 
throughout Europe, and supposed it an easy matter to se- 
cure one ; but when I went to Dresden I found no one was 
allowed to copy the original. Theodore Schmidt, the di- 
rector of the gallery, and an artist not surpassed in all Ger- 
many, had this, painted in front of the original itself, in 
brief snatches daily, after the gallery was closed to visitors. 
I was two weeks in daily intercourse with him, trying to 
buy it. He did n't want to sell. ' I made it solely to leave 
my family,' he said ; ' I am too old ever to make another, 
for this has taken all the time I could have a chance to copy 
from the original for five years.' At last, however, I won 
him over, and here it is. All the copies in Europe, but two, 
were made from engravings and photographs of engravings, 
and this is the only one in America made from the original 
itself. It cost me a great deal of money, and it would take 
a great deal of money to buy it." . . . "To get the finest 
possible duplicates of famous paintings," says Mr. Hopkins, 
"is with Mr. Powers an ambition nearly sacred." When 
we remember that his chief enjoyment of his treasures is 
in making them accessible, — in sharing with us all what 
no one could blame him for reserving for the privileged 
few, — the idea of the man's life is revealed, and the mean- 
ing of those endless salons, that makes of them something 
far beyond a mere collection of rare originals and suiDcrior 
copies. 

A glimpse, at least, of our best social life is afforded to 
the attendant upon the evening receptions at the Art Gal- 
lery, when the simple item of lighting not only the inte- 
rior, but the row of globe lamps on the cornice outside, is 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 27/ 

by no means met by the trifling admission fee, which, while 
serving as a necessary guard, makes the possibiUty of a 
charming and profitable evening available to those of lim- 
ited advantages. But, as a rule, those who attend the Art 
Gallery evening receptions have no lack of social life. 
Their appreciation of what Mr. Powers offers, and the 
charm of meeting the best people in the most delightful of 
places, has established the custom with many of our society 
leaders of dropping into the grand salon for a half hour at 
least, shaking hands with Mr. Powers, and seeing the last 
new pictures. 

No one enjoys these receptions more thoroughly than 
Mr. Powers himself; but to see him in his moment of su- 
perlative pleasure one must look into the dancing-school 
some Saturday afternoon, when he is waltzing with the 
children, — the truest boy in the crowd, — the frolic lasting 
until he has "run the elevator" for them all, with a zest 
that makes our little folk believe that the block and Mr, 
Powers belong to them, like fairy land and Santa Claus. 

What a wonderful dream Hamlet Scrantom ought to have 
had that first Christmas Eve, in the log-cabin on the Four 
Corners. If we only might tell our children a story like 
this : — 

" Well, he lay in bed, the children all asleep, the fire out 
on the hearth, the stockings hanging rather limp from the 
mantel, — for the mother had nothing but a few doughnuts 
to give them, — the roar of the Falls making him lonesome 
and homesick. It was bright moonlight outside, and by 
and by he heard the snow creak under a footstep. Was it 
a bear .^ He had crept softly out of bed so as not to waken 
the tired mother, when somebody looked in at the window, 
— a boy, — he could see him plain enough, in the moon- 
light; a chubby-faced, sturdy-built boy, short and stout, — 
what did he want looking in at folks' windows that time 
Christmas Eve? Hamlet Scrantom went outside, and as 
he was dreaming, — that must be understood to begin with, 
of course, — he sat down on the woodpile with the unex- 
pected boy, for a little conversation. The boy had a string 



278 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of rattles in his hand, and a fox brush for a cap. He was 
barefooted, and Hamlet Scrantom was too, for that matter, 
but little regard for the weather is demanded of dreams. 
The boy had pale blue eyes, and he fixed them upon Ham- 
let Scrantom and said : — 

'"In less than sixty years, — write it down :' and Hamlet 
Scrantom began writing on the door, — 'in the year 1870, the 
spot where this house stands will be the centre of a great 
city.' This is great nonsense for me to be writing on my 
door, thought Hamlet Scrantom, but a spell was upon him 
and he wrote on. ' On this very spot a building will stand 

— a mountain of stone, iron, and glass, cheap at a million 
of dollars ; why, the roof alone will cost over one hundred 
thousand, and the windows more than fifty thousand. From 
the tower one will see Lake Ontario.' Hamlet Scrantom 
tried to stop writing, to tell the boy to have done with false- 
hoods, but his fingers moved on : 'The floors of that build- 
ing will cover more than nine acres. A hundred thousand 
people may be sheltered within it. In forty seconds one 
will mount from the bottom floor to the top. Down in its 
basement all the light and heat needed in any and every 
part will be made ; no stoves, no candles, no winter, no 
night, and more than that, — believe me now, write it plainly, 

— there will be an observatory on its top, where they will 
measure the force and velocity of the wind and report to 
Washington three times a day, and be just no time at all 
in reporting, for in less than sixty years, you know, talking 
with New York just as I am talking to you will be an 
every-day matter, and as for traveling : ' — 

"And then Hamlet Scrantom woke up and found that his 
boys had come down the ladder leading up to the loft and 
were eating the doughnuts found in their stockings. He 
told them his dream, and they laughed merrily to be sure ; 
and one of them at least lived to see it come to pass every 
word." 

But there is a truer story Rochester boys will remember 
and profit by. 

About fifty years ago, when one Robert Haney taught the 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 279 

district school in Batavia, a sturdy little fellow called Dan 
Powers was among his pupils, a fatherless boy, who had 
his own way to make in the world, — and who was about 
as well qualified at the outset to make that way as a boy 
could be, for he had common sense ideas of independence 
and industry. Willingness to work was his first stepping- 
stone upward, and persistence at work the second. Life 
)had few playdays for him. It was work on the farm all 
summer, with the privilege of going to school in the win- 
ter, with "the chores" at night and morning, and these 
chores the most of our city boys of leisure would think 
enough for any day's whole employment. "I remember the 
first money I ever earned," and it may be doubted if the re- 
calling of any other financial transaction gives Mr. Powers 
so much pleasure. "I used to build the fires in the school- 
house for the ashes, and carry them nearly half a mile for 
sale. It was n't much I got for my first lot, but it looked 
very big in my eyes." 

When the boy would start out in the world he went to 
Somerset, Niagara County, but was disappointed in find- 
ing employment. What Somerset had been to-day if that 
boy had not decided to try Rochester, where he did not 
know a soul and had little to build expectation upon, and 
what Rochester's present physiognomy had been had some- 
body "wanted a boy" in Somerset that summer, is good 
material for speculation. 

And now we see the plucky lad, a little fellow for his ad- 
vanced teens, entering first one and then another of our 
leading business houses, asking with a courage that grew 
less and less for hearing nothing but "No,"— "Can you 
give me something to do >. I want work." Daniel Powers 
has seen at least one very homesick day in Rochester. 
He knows what it is to stand outside the barred door of 
Fortune knocking seemingly in vain. Such a great world, 
such a great city, and never a place for a boy who was 
willing to work. 

Ebenezer Watts sat reading his paper in his hardware 
store on Exchange Street the following mornino-. It was 



280 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

early, but Ebenezer Watts knew the value of time. " Do 
you want a boy ? " piped in a voice that had no whine in 
it, hard as it may have been to keep it from faltering. 
The old gentleman looked up over his spectacles and took 
in the early applicant. We can believe that his shrewd 
eyes read in that boy's face the something — the "that" — 
as Gilbert says, which made him say: "Yes, I want some- 
body : but you are too small ; you cannot do the work I 
must have done here — heavy work, hard lifting ; you are 
not strong enough." 

" I wish you would try me, sir. I have done hard work 
on a farm. I am not afraid of work, sir." 

I think the old gentleman must have rubbed his glasses 
at that, and given the boy a searching inspection, for he 
said: "Have you run away from home.'*" The boy's de- 
nial of such imputation was stoutly maintained. Would he 
work for his board .'' Cheerfully. Then he must go home 
and get papers from his guardian testifying approval of the 
contract between Ebenezer Watts and Daniel W. Powers. 
The next train to Batavia had at least one elated passen- 
ger aboard, and a few nights after Ebenezer Watts led the 
bashful boy into Mrs. Watts' presence. 

" Here 's the boy. He 's to live with us, you know," and 
another inspection took place. The good woman opened her 
home and her heart as well, and the twelve years Daniel 
Powers spent under her roof shaped his character in the 
right direction. It was careful oversight of something 
more than the fulfillment of his prescribed duties as appren- 
tice, or store-boy. His innate moral sense was quickened 
and developed. The restrictions placed upon his expendi- 
tures and inborn conviviality developed the balanced gen- 
erosity, which makes the benefactions of D. W. Powers 
advantageous in every instance to the recipient, public or 
private. His quick sympathy was schooled by discipline 
in wise frugality, and he learned to be his own counselor 
in making investments, acting independent of opposition, 
whether those investments were in government bonds when 
repudiation was demanded in high quarters, building a 




iJlantLcTiiilisTijjig iSngTa^ono Co il"i 



d~~£^y-'^y?\ 



^ 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 28 1 

block that capitalists said was like building a well in the 
air, or in encouraging some poor soul broken on Fortune's 
wheel to be up and doing once more. 

And how did he make his money, that boy looking for 
work in our streets, and never a recommendation but his 
honest face and steady eye ? The answering of that ques- 
tion is the old story, found in the life of the most successful 
men in the country, and repeated in the story of George 
Ellwanger, Patrick Barry, Hiram Sibley, Burke, Fitz Sim- 
mons, Hone & Co., Isaac Butts, Aaron Erickson, William 
Purcell, James Cunningham, and others, — a long catalogue 
embracing the names of our most honored citizens, men 
who started in life looking for work, and were not afraid of 
the same when they found it. 

The money saved by the clerk of Ebenezer Watts, who 
thought himself making great strides towards a competency 
when he received eight dollars a month and was " found," 
was of course the beginning of the future fortune. March 
I, 1850, you might have read the following in your morn- 
ing's paper : — 

NEW EXCHANGE OFFICE. 

The subscriber has located himself in the Eagle Block, Roch- 
ester, one door west of the Monroe Bank, in Buffalo Street, for 
the purpose of doing the Exchange business in all its branches. 
Undercurrent moneys bought and sold. Exchange on New York 
and the Eastern cities bought and sold. Certificates of deposits 
in banks, and notes payable at distant points collected. Canada 
and Western bank-notes discounted at the lowest rates. Drafts 
on Buffalo can be had at all times. Foreign and American gold 
and silver coins bought and sold. Deposits received and interest 
allowed. Moneys remitted to England, Ireland, and Scotland, 
and other portions of the Old World. By prompt attention to 
business, I hope to merit a share of public patronage. I am au- 
thorized to refer to Ebenezer Watts, Esq. ; George R. Clark, Esq., 
Cashier ; Ralph Lester, Esq., Cashier ; Thomas H. Rochester, 
Esq., President ; C. T. Amsden, Cashier ; Everard Peck, Esq., 
President ; Isaac Hills, Esq. 

Daniel W. Powers. 
Rochester, Monroe County, N. Y., 
March i, 1850. 



282 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

During the war, when the faith of many in government 
bonds waxed low, D. W. Powers was making extraordinary 
investment in the same. With the true gift of seership he 
knew what the end of the struggle would be. In his faith 
in the United States government, his unshaken confidence 
in her principles, and the leadership of the Republican 
party, was the secret of his wonderful success. Had there 
been a repudiation of government bonds, the present Pow- 
ers Buildings and the Art Gallery had possibly been as lost 
to us as they are to Somerset, Niagara County. 

Mr. Powers is naturally interrogated concerning the Art 
Gallery by those who would learn his plans for the future. 
" I think we have a very fair nucleus to start with," is the 
nature of his usual response, perhaps pointing out the first 
picture he bought for the collection, now numbering up- 
wards of one thousand oil-paintings, and four salons filled 
with superior water-colors. That first picture is significant. 
He picked it up in Florence before the thought of an Art 
Gallery was distinctly defined in his plans for the future, — 
a picture of Justice, a good painting, creditable to the col- 
lection, and cheap at $300. That is one nucleus. The 
whole gallery he considers another, and his reticence upon 
the subject will disclose no more. Nor is he willing to 
answer another question rather trite in his ears, — the ap- 
proximate cost of the collection, of which it may be truth- 
fully asserted there is not another private enterprise like it 
in the world. Its daily visitors exceed those of any other 
gallery. " I have seen every Art Gallery worth seeing," is 
the tenor of the expression of many visitors, "but nothing 
like this." 

Subtract the Gallery from the Block, and leave it de- 
voted to its more than a thousand tenants with their mul- 
tiform occupations, and it is still a subject that may not 
be briefly dispatched. Even "facts, nothing but facts," 
would give a neat volume of statistics. What it will be to 
the Rochester of 1934 is a question for our prophets. Will 
the Rochesterian of that day smile at our enthusiastic 
praise of our majestic pile, as we now do when we read in 




AUTOGLYPH. -W. P. Allen, Gardner, Mass. Photo, by Bovvdish. 

THE WARNER COMMERCIAL BUILDING. FIREPROOF. 

North St. Pmil Street, corner Pleasant. 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 283 

"The Fashionable Tour" of 1828, that "among the sights 
making a stop in Rochester desirable is the Globe Biiild- 
ings,i a majestic pile, built of the most durable materials, 
and rising from the water's edge five stories, exclusive of 
attics, with between 130 and 140 apartments suitable for 
workshops (having a sufficient water power for each), and 
several stores," with the additional item, that the traveler 
will find it worth while to visit Carthage and see the ruins 
of its wonderful bridge ? 

The most noteworthy thing of the many to be said of 
Powers Fire-Proof Hotel, connected on all floors above the 
first with Powers Commercial Buildings, is that it was 
built in one year, and was opened as a hotel on the anniver- 
sary of the beginning to remove from a part of its present 
site the old National Hotel, — the Monroe House of our 
early history. 



COMETS AND NEBULAE. 



" Professor Swift, of Rochester, has discovered another 
comet," is one of the familiar items of the Press that the 
general reader counts upon as confidently as an insurrec- 
tion in Hayti or a sea serpent off the coast of Maine. 
"Rochester's peculiar responsibility for comets," some one 
is pleased to observe, "makes it fitting that she should be 
looking after those in the heavens." 

Dr. Swift, as the abundance of his high honorary titles 
decrees he shall be called, by his persistent star-gazing from 
the top of the Duffy Cider-Mill, with a little telescope "no 
larger than the finder on some telescopes of the present 
day," has made the whole cometary system, in an important 
sense, an extension of the Rochester domain. All undis- 
covered comets and unclassified nebulae are expected to re- 
port here. 

Dr. Swift's record since 1862 — when, after four years 
of searching for comets and finding none, he was first to 
discover the most important comet in one respect ever dis- 

1 The Globe Buildings stood on the corner north of Main and west of Water 
streets. They were torn down about iS6d. 



284 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

covered — gives him the honor of discovering eight comets, 
at last accounts, from his different observatories, and a large 
number of nebulae, his cataloguing and study of the latter 
being a work for which he is eminently fitted, and in which 
he is doing a work long needed. As the early discoverers 
uniformly took possession of new lands in the name of their 
king, so Dr. Swift is increasing our municipal jurisdiction to 
an extent the already grumbling tax-payer has not dreamed 
of, and when the next total solar eclipse shall take place in 
Africa, if his discovery in 1878 of the two intra-Mercurial 
planets shall be confirmed, why, Dr. Lewis Swift, of Roch- 
ester, N. Y., will be the astronomer in whom the world will 
then be most interested. 

His first comet, so patiently sought for, was an important 
discovery, "because its elements were found to be identical 
with those of the meteoric ring, which produces the star- 
shower of August loth. It proved a new theory in astron- 
omy, — the identity of comets and star- showers." This 
comet, with its tail of 25° in length, was not seen at Har- 
vard Observatory until two days after. Dudley Observatory 
was a half hour behind Harvard, and the European astron- 
omers at least ten days. That was a grand success for a 
beginning in comet finding, but it had been well earned, as 
have all his subsequent discoveries. " One cannot discover 
comets lying in bed," says Dr. Swift ; and it may well be 
doubted if there are many enthusiasts in astronomy even 
who would turn out of bed in winter by an alarm clock, 
walk half a mile, snow shovel in hand, climb to their little 
telescope on a cider-mill roof, and watch for comets in the 
piercing cold, as Dr. Swift used to do, until the generous 
benefaction of H. H. Warner, furnished him the most com- 
plete private observatory in the world, at a cost of $100,000, 
the citizens of Rochester contributing the telescope, fourth 
in size in America, its object-glass sixteen inches across, 
and its highest magnifying power 1,600 diameters. The 
object-glass alone cost $8,000, and the micrometer — a piece 
of delicate mechanism chiefly used in determining the dis- 
tance of double stars, their relation, revolution, and orbit — 




THE WARNER OBSERVATORY. INTERIOR. 



286 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the great telescope we passed out on the roof contiguous to 
the tower. ' Here,' said Dr. Swift, ' is where I do much of 
my comet seeking, with my old small telescope. With the 
new large one I have been hunting mostly for new nebulae, 
and have found one hundred and twenty of them, too, — 
fourteen in one night.' 

"'But how do you know they are new?' asked we. 

"Then he led us to the reception room. There in one 
immense flat volume, entitled, 'Atlas des Nordlichen Ge- 
stirnten Himmels' we saw — what.-' 

" ' Millions of fly specks,' said Dr. Swift. Such indeed 
they seemed to be, — page after page. * Yes, there are 
millions of them, millions ; and here in these different 
books they are each recorded.' " 

Eight comets and great numbers of hitherto undiscovered 
and uncatalogued nebulae ; the finest private observatory in 
the world, and a telescope fourth in size and power of any 
in America ; with a society of citizens fully appreciating 
Dr. Swift's contributions to scientific discovery, and his 
claim upon their cooperation in making those discoveries 
possible, — why with all this should we be modest in nam- 
ing Rochester as one focal point at least for astronomical 
discovery and knowledge, the terminus for direct communi- 
cation with other worlds than ours ? 

The following are the names of the contributors to the 
telescope in the Warner Observatory : — 

Garry Brooks, Lemuel Brooks, Royal C. Knapp, $i,ooo each. 
Aaron Erickson, Henry S. Potter, James Vick, George H. Thomp- 
son, Frederick Cook, Henry Bartholomay, M. W. Kirby, Burke, 
Fitz Simmons, Hone & Co., Freeman Clark, Wolcott Brothers, 
Alfred Bell, Samuel Wilder, Mrs. James McDonald, $200 each. 
Heirs of Isaac Butts, $150. Lewis Chace, Smith «Sr Perkins, 
James Andrews, A. S. Mann, Mortimer F. Reynolds, Bausch & 
Lomb, A. M. Hastings, H. S. Greenleaf, Edward Harris, A. M. 
Lindsay, D. K. Robinson, S. L. Brewster, H. Austin Brewster, 
E. R. Parsons, F. Delano, Joseph Medbury, George A. Stone, P. 
Will, W. B. Douglass, G. E. Mumford, E. P. Willis, A. T. Soule, 
A. C. Yates, E. A. Chace, Douglas Hovey, W. S. Kimball, Don- 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 287 

aid Gordon, Charles C. Morse, Junius Judson, Duffy Cider Com- 
pany, George C. Buell & Co., Hamilton & Mathews, John A. 
Reynolds, Joseph Curtis, $100 each. W. S. McMillan, John 
Fahy, James Cunningham, Peter Pitkin, J. Nelson Tubbs, J. C. 
Hart, William Halsey, J. W. Whitney, Henry M. Ellsworth, Wil- 
liam H. Gorsline, H. N. Hemingway, F. Gorton, L. P. Ross, D. 
Copeland, Jr., Wm. A. Oothout, J. H. Martindale, Wm. Corning, 
J. B. Southworth, Whitmore, Rauber & Co., Daniel Leary, E. R, 
Andrews, Charles E. Upton, Mosley & Motley, L. S. Graves & 
Son, John E. Morey, F. A. Macomber, M. A. Culver, Alfred 
Wright, David Cory, C. F. Paine, $50 each. 

The following persons and firms have contributed less 
than $50 each : — 

D. A. Woodbury, George Loverage, J. A. Hinds, Louis Ernst 
& Son, B. H. Clark & Son, Theodore Bacon, John H. Hill, C. E. 
Furman, Woodbury Morse & Co., E. Griffin, Samuel Sloan, J. S. 
Graham & Co., J. H. Rochester, E. Peshine Smith, A. Luetch- 
ford, M. Whittlesey, J. C. Barnard, Lewis Ailing, J. A. Stull, 
S. F. Hess, Oscar Craig, E. B. Chace, John Smith, Nathaniel 
Foot, Addison Gardiner, S. J. Arnold, W. D. Shuart, Farley Fer- 
guson & Co., Geo. B. Smith, H. C. Roberts, Williams & Hoyt, 
Chase & Otis, Roby & Co., G. Mannel, Emery Jones, E. T. Wood- 
bury, Henry A. Strong, M. Briggs & Son, James Frye, C. M. Ever- 
est, Patrick Cox, Dr. Whitbeck, M. W. Cooke, Wm. Cox, E. T. 
Miller, G. A. Hollister, Seth Greene, G. Maurer, H. H. Craig, H. 
H. Edgerton, G. W. Cronch, R. A. Lansing, W. S. Little, F. W. 
Little, Weaver & Goss, Wm. Gleason, B. S. Osgood, A. H. Nird- 
linger, De L. Crittenden, John H. Kent, Charles V. Jeffreys, 
Newell A. Stone, A Friend, Stephen Remington, Frank Upton, 
Henry S. Hebard, W. Moore, John Cornwall, J. E. Pierpont, N. 
P. Pond, E. K. Warren, A. Johnson, Frederick Goetzman, D. M. 
Dewey, Geo. Arnold, Theron Parsons. 

Dr. Swift's zeal in raising this money, and thereby bring- 
ing a superior telescope to our city, has hardly been less 
than that displayed in his search of the heavens for comets 
and nebulae. The spring of 1884 finds him with nearly the 
amount required in his hands, and there is every reason for 
believing that the last dollar will soon be paid. 



288 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

MUSEUMS MADE TO ORDER. 

The stranger visiting Rochester, seeking to behold at 
least what it has of exceptional interest to offer the sight- 
seer, is very likely to miss what he would not find upon so 
large a scale in any other city in the Union or of the world, 
— Ward's "Natural Science Establishment," — the cluster 
of very plain, even unattractive, wooden buildings, in full 
range of the north windows of our University, from which 
our visitor may have gazed with the remark that the near 
environment of the grounds in that direction were hardly 
in keeping with their uniform beauty. If the jaw-bones of 
the great whale arched above the gateway did not provoke 
further inquiry, the probability is that the unscientific ram- 
bler would go the grand rounds of our sight-seers and lose 
our most unique exhibition. Not that our citizens are for- 
getful of the Institution, — those who know what it is doing 
and what it contains ; but as it is not a museum, and takes 
pains to guard its workshops against the intrusion of the 
merely curious, besides conducting its immense business 
without local advertising or parade, it is by no means sur- 
prising that comparatively few of our citizens have visited 
it, while fewer still, perhaps, can say definitely what Ward 
& Howells are doing with " Rerum cognoscere causas " 
over their ofifice door. 

The ordinary mail of a business house is the best indi- 
cator of its transactions. Here are a few specimens of the 
orders received in Ward & Howells' daily mail : — 

"Christ Church, New Zealand. 

..." Our Museum Trustees authorize us to order the 
following : — 

The mounted skeleton of Mastodon , . . $2,800 
The mounted skeleton of great Irish Elk . . . 800 
The relief map of the Grand Canon of the Colorado 125 

Relief map of the Henry Mts 50 

Relief map of High Plateaus of Utah ... 60 

Also the series of eleven models of the Cliff Houses 

made by the U. S. government .... 450 

"Please add $100 worth of American stone implements. 



fj 



A 




AuTOGLYPH.— W. P. Allen, Gardner, Mass. 

RESIDENCE OF H H WARNER. 
East Avenue. 



Photo, by Bowdish. 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 289 

"If your geological survey should model some of the in- 
teresting mining regions of Nevada or Colorado, we want 
them." 

Here is one from a world - renowned University, — an 
order for, — 

"The college collection of minerals, including crystal 
models, $250 ; and the following Physical and Structural 
Series : 8 spec, illustrating Lustre. 5 Diaphaneity. 6 Fusi- 
bility. 40 Specific gravity. 10 Scale of Hardness. 6 State 
of Aggregation. 4 varieties of Fracture. 9 of Structure. 8 
Form. Also the stratigraphical collection of rocks with 
chart of Geological Time and the New York Slate Rocks." 
Another : " Please ship at once, as our classes open on the 
15th, Skeletons — Horse, Cow, Cat, Crow, Dog, Orang- 
outang, Beaver, Kangaroo, Water Snake, Owl, Parrot, Hawk, 
Heron. Also, mounted Chimpanzee, Dog-faced Monkey, 
Wild Cat,. Fur Seal, Kangaroo, Porcupine, Lyre-Bird, Bird 
of Paradise, . . . and Hammer-headed Shark." Another : 
"Send the Cave Bear skull, and the mounted Sea Lion." 

What kind of place can it be that is filling such orders 
continually, — orders by no means confined to North Amer- 
ica and Europe.'' To study the natural sciences without 
specimens would be like studying geography without maps 
or globes. An extended study of Archaeology and Fossil 
Remains was impossible to the American student who might 
not visit the great museums of the Old World, until Pro- 
fessor Ward, more than any other enthusiast fcr science, 
helped to bring about the fulfillment of the prophecy of 
Agassiz in i860, that European students would yet be 
forced to come to America for opportunities for the study 
of Natural Science, and that because of our ample type 
collections. The idea of founding an institution where skill- 
ful workmen should turn out by hundreds exact types of 
the single rare specimens that make the wealth of foreign 
museums — casts of the rarest fossils, fac-similes of un- 
purchasable originals, full geological series of originals, 
everything that taxidermy can achieve for zoology or scien- 
tific handicraft for osteology, everything, anything, in short. 



290 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

that a complete Museum of Natural Science would demand — 
was a magnificent idea in theory, but the last scheme in the 
world, the most of us would say, for a man whose invest- 
ment in it at the outset must be largely the faith begotten 
of his love for science. The encouragement of leading nat- 
uralists, their unanimous agreement that such an enterprise 
was called for, would not count for much in meeting the 
immense expense that the first foundation stones of such a 
venture would cost. Casts of rare specimens are not fur- 
nished for a song, — plaster copies of the Rosctta Stone, 
plaster casts of the skulls and brains of the various races of 
mankind, the skeleton of a mastodon or a mammoth, that 
of the colossal antelope of the Himalayas, or the glyptodon 
of South America ; and the matter of making not one 
collection, but founding what should be the headquarters 
for the obtaining of such collections, to say nothing of the 
time and money required, made up an aggregate of obsta- 
cles at the very beginning of the work that almost any one 
but Henry A. Ward would have thought insurmountable. 
His hill of difificulty was about as steep and painful to climb 
as any in our local range ; but he climbed it, and to-day the 
great museums the world over draw upon Rochester for their 
wonders ; his casts are to be found in the leading scientific 
cabinets, and his fossil mammoths or life-like restorations 
are an indispensable feature wherever natural science would 
have pronounced illustration. His workmen build mam- 
moths in sections. There is frequently to be seen, in one 
of the shed-like buildings on the grounds, what to the unin- 
itiated visitor might pass for a pile of rubbish, unless in- 
formed it was a mammoth, soon to be packed and shipped 
to some college, the guide exhibiting one of the lesser sec- 
tions, possibly the perfectly simulated foot. 

A mammoth can be built in two months with twelve 
good workmen, but as a rule it takes longer. The average 
price of such luxuries is about three thousand dollars, — a 
restriction upon their universal adoption for lawn decora- 
tions. 

And what can be seen by the visitor privileged with ad- 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 



291 



mission to the buildings ? If the institution were a museum 
and not a worl<:shop, that question might be more definitely- 
answered. No two days give the same exhibit. Speci- 
mens are sent off as soon as possible, but the stock on hand 
is always wonderful, and may not be profitably seen in a 
single visit. The antiquities alone are a museum by them- 
selves, as well as the imitations of celebrated diamonds and 
precious stones. Every order in the animal kingdom will 
claim your special attention in some wonderful specimen, — 




^.■^Wi,\AAK; 



Elephas primagenus 



reptiles, birds, corals, shells, — and not the least interest- 
ing are the workmen themselves, several of them from the 
Jardin des Plantes of Paris. 

The antiquities represent the extent of the changing col- 
lection. You will undoubtedly see several Peruvian mum- 
mies, — not so hideous as the box of mummy-heads (Egyp- 
tian), — price fifteen dollars each; idols from every land 
where idols are a specialty ; New Zealand war-clubs ; Mexi- 
can pottery ; Peruvian jars ; a New Guinea tam-tam ; a South 
Sea Islander's sword, made of shark's teeth ; a ceremonial 



292 ROCHESTER. A STORY HISTORICAL. 

axe from the Feejee Islands ; a mummied crocodile ; a box 
of needles taken from a Peruvian grave ; and, what light- 
ens up the exhibit somewhat, the short petticoat of a New 
Guinea woman, made of unwoven grass, — cheap to the 
scientific collector of such curiosities at ten dollars. The 
baby rattle, with its horrible grin and eyes, would no doubt 
be as joyfully received in our nurseries as in the wigwams 
of Alaska, from whence it came. 

The visitor must not fail to see the lower jaw of the giant 
mastodon found at Hooperstown, Indiana, with its two 
tusks, for it is the only one in the country ; and now Pro- 
fessor Ward has a whole mastodon in original fossils, also 
the original skeleton of an Irish Elk. 

The cast of the skull of the Neanderthal man, — a dupli- 
cate of the most famous of human relics, — the cranium over 
which anthropologists have waged fierce debate, is just as 
good for speculating over as the thing itself; and theorizing 
is aided by an ideal bust of this Neanderthal man, which is 
ranged on a shelf with busts of Huxley and other eminent 
naturalists, and a sprinkling of gorillas to keep our Neander- 
thal man in company. In the surplus of absorbing subjects 
for special attention, one must not fail to note the cases 
prepared by Professor Ward for school collections, — a neat, 
convenient cabinet, containing the skeletons of a snake, 
bull-frog, cat, crow, and turtle, mounted with the superior 
skill of the establishment. P^ifty dollars places this aid to 
the pupils in natural science within reach of schools. 

The attempt to give a more detailed description of this 
institution is accomplished in the many catalogues of its 
many departments. Ward & Howclls are the makers of 
museums. The collectors of their materials are in every 
part of the world. Celebrated trotters are sent here for 
mounting ; rarest skins for preserving and making into 
beautiful rugs ; and, as a correspondent in the New York 
" Observer " was pleased to announce, " Your own skeleton, 
with a suspension ring, will cost about fifty dollars ; with a 
bronzed standard on black walnut pedestal, and a hand- 
some ash case, and an extensible bracket, it will be worth 
more." 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 293 

" While we were there," writes another visitor to the 
"American Naturalist," " they had just finished the prepa- 
ration of a giraffe, thirteen feet in height, and were unpack- 
ing boxes containing a moose from Nova Scotia, a caribou 
from Maine, a bear from Pennsylvania, a huge basking- 
shark from the Atlantic coast ; and, from Professor Agas- 
siz, a walrus, a small whale, and the rare Rocky Mountain 
goat, to be mounted for the Cambridge museum." 

Ward's "Natural Science Establishment," according to 
its founder, is yet in its infancy ; an infancy suggesting que- 
ries akin to those arising when Mr. Powers calls the Art 
Gallery a nucleus. The two institutions give us a pair of 
twins, marvelously like and unlike each other. The idea 
of each is the same, — the making available to the people 
what has hitherto been the exclusive possession of the priv- 
ileged classes, — an effort for communism, at least in higher 
education. With one benefactor bringing us the copies of 
the Old Masters and originals of modern artists, and another 
the types of the rarest treasures of science, why need our 
students of restricted means complain of limitations for 
development, and where is the American city more highly 
favored in superior advantages for the extended study of 
art and natural science .'' 

The " Lewis Brooks Museum of Natural Science," of the 
University of Virginia, is decidedly a Rochester institution. 
In the spring of 1876, Lewis Brooks, a citizen of whom we 
may be justly proud, sent Professor Ward to the Trustees 
of the University of Virginia, offering them large cabinets 
of mineralogy, geology, and zoology, valued at thirty-five 
thousand dollars, if they would provide suitable rooms and 
cases for the same. This generous offer was soon followed 
by Mr. Brooks sending to the University the sum of thirty- 
four thousand dollars for a building for the cabinets. As 
these donations were made through Professor Ward, the 
friend of Lewis Brooks, and as a Rochester architect, J. R. 
Thomas, drew the plans for the building, we may justlv 
consider the " Lewis Brooks Museum of Natural Science " 
one of our outlying honors, as well as the cabinets of Wash- 



294 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

ington and Lee University, of Lexington, Virginia, which 
were also the gift of Mr. Brooks, and made through Profes- 
sor Ward. The value of the Lexington collection was ten 
thousand dollars, with a further benefaction of fifteen thou- 
sand dollars. The Sibley College of Mechanic Art, of Cor- 
nell University, at Ithaca, founded by Hiram Sibley, with 
an endowment of one hundred thousand dollars, affording 
practical education to hundreds of students, is another of 
our outlying honors of the first magnitude. Also St. John's 
Episcopal Church, in North Adams, Mass., the native vil- 
lage of Mrs. Sibley, built by her at a cost of twenty-five 
thousand dollars. 

If Rochester has one characteristic transcending all oth- 
ers it is in the magnitude of her specialties, almost any one 
of which would save us from the nullity of many a larger 
city whose energies are less concentrated. Vick sows the 
land with flowers. There is hardly a posy-bed deep in the 
backwoods of Canada or far down among the Southern 
plantations, whose pinks and pansies and sweet peas and 
all the rest do not tell of Rochester to those whose fairest 
glimpse of beauty they often are. It was away up in the 
fishing-grounds of Nova Scotia that James Vick's old In- 
dian guide discovered that his genial patron was from Roch- 
ester. "And do you know Mr. Vick.^" "Oh yes, very 
well." Then followed the trite old story of the flower-beds, 
the wonderful blooms, and the old woman's partiality for 
Vick's seeds ; no new experience for the listener, who drew 
in his speckled trout without making himself known. But 
when he came to go home there was a big fish for his car- 
rying to Mr. Vick, if he would be so kind. 

James Vick was ever, in some indefinable way, insepara- 
ble from his flowers. The sorrow his death brought to his 
townsmen was sincerely shared by thousands the country 
over, whose only intercourse with the man had, after all, 
been limited to what was a business correspondence. 
Vick's seed-packages scattered something more than what 
they were certified to contain. His immense seed-house 
radiated a j^ersonal influence not easily accounted for. 




JAMES VICK 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 295 

When it became necessary to revise the geographies that 
taught, " Rochester has the largest flour-mills in the world," 
we adopted the name of " Flower City," in lieu of the lost 
appellative, " Flour City." None could dispute our right 
to that title, with Ellwanger & Barry's largest nursery in 
the world fairly encircling the city ; Vick's flower-seed 
farms bordering our most charming drives, and other fa- 
mous and extensive nurseries and gardens flourishing on 
our outskirts. " Flower City " emphasizes only one of our 
several prominent specialties, however ; but no one will 
complain that our lager, cigarettes, cider, clothing, shoe, 
and furniture manufactories, or our world -known patent 
medicines, are not proclaimed in our distinctive title, boast- 
ful as we may seem in preventing a world's forgetting the 
size of our breweries, — sending out their 250,475 barrels 
of beer and 34,570 of ale in a single year (1883) ; and 
does not the demand for Kimball's cigarettes come from 
Persia, China, all Europe, and the islands of the sea, and is 
he not making them at the rate of a million a day, with 
some twelve hundred employees, mostly women and girls, 
his pay-roll averaging seven thousand dollars a week .'' The 
Mercury on his high chimney may well go tripping in jubi- 
lant mood, ominous as are the prognostications of seers 
concerning a people making such demand upon the tobacco 
fields of Virginia and Turkey. The future historian who 
makes deep research for the exact locality of the famous 
cider-mill, from whose roof Dr. Swift discovered six comets, 
will be delighted to learn that " Duffy's " is the largest 
cider-mill in the world, having a frontage of eight hundred 
feet on the Erie Canal, and that it crushes into prime cider 
about a million bushels of apples in a season. The historic 
building — the veritable old cider-mill where the comet- 
seeker used to walk o' nights — is a thing of the past, as 
far as cider-making is concerned, but its site remains at 
Lake Avenue and White Street. Duffy's was the first 
American cider in demand across the Atlantic. 

If our University is not the largest in the world, its 



296 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

president, Martin B. Anderson, LL. D., has laid the founda- 
tions of an institution of learning which will be not only an 
enduring monument of his vigorous ideas of higher educa- 
tion, but of his zeal in establishing and securing endow- 
ments for the same within thirty years of its opening under 
rather unfavorable circumstances. Many of us remember 
the days of the University in the old hotel on Buffalo 
Street ; the days when A. Kingman Nott and Manton 
Marble were among the students, and when Dr. O. W. 
Holmes' now rather trite story of planting a university in 
Rochester with an omnibus full of professors and students 
from Hamilton College early enough in the spring to have 
a crop of freshmen with the first green peas, was repeated 
with zest, none enjoying it more than the young president, 
whose apprenticeship in a Maine ship-yard possibly made 
for him the launching of a university secondary to sound 
timber and good workmanship. The contrast between the 
University belongings of the days of the old hotel, and the 
present brown stone structure, — the extensive park-like 
grounds, — Sibley Hall, the collections of natural science, 
and what we may call the prophecy of an observatory, — all 
on a sound financial basis with liberal endowment, — is the 
outcome of Dr. Anderson's clearly defined idea of what a 
university should be in its formative period, if its develop- 
ment is to be that of the oak rather than the mushroom, 
and if symmetry is to be cultivated before novelty. 

Dr. Anderson has given of his best gifts to the founda- 
tion of our University. All that has yet been gained he 
calls its foundation only. That solid work has been laid by 
the hand that quarried and shaped each stone. His teach- 
ings, so familiar to his students, " bring things to pass," has 
best illustration in his own work. 

Our University is something more than a collection of 
scholastic specimens, to be sent forth duly labeled for some 
sacred niche in passive scholarship. It is emphatically a 
training-school, not only in its curriculum, but in the far- 
reaching relations of the students' future life. " Living is- 
sues," to quote from the biography of Dr. Anderson in the 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 297 

"■ Contemporary Biography of New York," " suggested by 
peculiar political and financial complications at home or 
abroad, are often taken up by him and treated philosophic- 
ally and practically, . . . the duties of educated citizens are 
pointed out ; and the lessons which the history of the past 
may teach to the present are carefully unfolded. The pre- 
cept and example of the President in these regards have 
had their influence throughout the college ; ... it is hardly 
too much to say that no institution of equal age can point 
to a larger proportion of virile thinkers, and independent 
leaders of thought, among its graduates. The University 
of Rochester stands for this idea, — a practical education 
which bears directly upon the questions of to-day." Its 
outlook, through the vision of its president, whose capacity 
for anticipation has at times been well-nigh exhausted, is all 
the most ambitious of us can ask for our University in the 
future. Few men in the country have been more largely 
associated with leading reforms, his conservatism and sound 
knowledge of fundamentals making him the safest of lead- 
ers. For thirteen years he served upon the Board of Chari- 
ties. His lectures and papers upon scientific, literary, po- 
litical, and educational subjects, etc., would make many 
volumes of valuable knowledge, and it is sincerely hoped 
that his many duties in public life will not prevent their 
collection by his own painstaking hand. 

A characteristic feature of our University, and maintained 
by Dr. Anderson not without some dissent, is the placing 
of the students in the homes of our citizens, thus obviating 
the evils of what has been called the barrack system for 
colleges, throwing upon the student, in a measure at least, 
the responsibility of a private citizen. Rochester has few 
if any college disorders to record, and compared with many 
a university town there is a remarkable absence of students' 
names in our police reports. The boys themselves, per- 
haps, give coldest approval to the system. 

Our Theological Seminary, with its two buildings, — Tre- 
vor and Rockerfellar halls, — has no organic connection with 



298 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

the University, but any student at the Seminary may enjoy 
without expense the benefit of the lectures in the Univer- 
sity. The fact that both the University and the Seminary 
are largely under the patronage of the Baptist denomina- 
tion, although the former is distinctively non-sectarian, and 
the latter open to students of all denominations, has con- 
ferred upon Rochester the name of "a Baptist College 
town," a distinction to be added to many others less grace- 
fully worn. The Library of the University and that of the 
Seminary are each valuable acquisitions to a city which has 
as yet no free Public Library, excepting the Central Library 
of the public schools. The Seminary Library embraces the 
entire collection of Neander, as also in great part the exe- 
getical apparatus of the late Dr. Hackett. The two libra- 
ries contain more than 25,000 volumes, and are free to 
the students. The reading-rooms are furnished with relig- 
ious and secular newspapers, periodicals and reviews, both 
American and foreign. The Faculties of these two institu- 
tions are an appreciated gain to our educational and social 
life. Their valuable papers and lectures are by no means 
confined to class-rooms. Professor Lattimore's free course 
of lectures on scientific subjects to our working men in the 
City Hall drew large crowds, by no means confined to the 
class for which they were specially intended. Professor 
Gilmore's lectures upon English literature and kindred sub- 
jects have given him a wide circuit of hearers and classes ; 
his charming conversational lectures being in demand by 
literary societies of high culture. 

It appears, in fact, that our University fulfills all the re- 
quirements of its name in the work its Professors are doing 
in various ways, — each seeming to have an embryo college 
in his social, political, or club life. 

It may not be known to all Rochesterians that the mag- 
nificent Elwood Block on the Four Corners is a monu- 
ment to the memory of a man who could have no more 
fitting memorial, and that in the very heart of the city with 
whose early history he was associated. Isaac R. Elwood, 




-tn, h/ Ksnl, HL-ie=:er Ny 



■ 5 i iHi^rcivin, 



^, // J^l^t^cCf^T^J^- 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 299 

a brother of Dr. Elwood of happy memory, came to Roch- 
ester in 1820, and soon took a place among our leading 
lawyers at a time when Vincent Mathews, the two Sel- 
dens, and Addison Gardiner were foremost in pohtical as 
well as judicial affairs. The name of Isaac R. Elwood is a 
familiar one to the searcher among old municipal archives, 
— the last clerk of the village, alderman, school inspector, 
etc. But it is in his relations to telegraphy that his mem- 
ory is chiefly perpetuated, in the series of undertakings end- 
ing in the Western Union Telegraph Company, of which he 
was the first secretary and treasurer after the consolidation 
was effected. And it is to his clear-headed superintendence 
of the great corporation, his rare foresight in providing for 
emergencies by contracts and leases that are still models of 
their kind, that much of the subsequent and stable j^ros- 
perity of the company is due. The Elwood Memorial 
Building is the peer in elegance, beauty, and convenience 
of its famous neighbor over the way, and was built by Frank 
W. Elwood, at the cost of about $100,000, in memory of his 
father. 

Among the decided promontories on the relief map of 
our reformers is Dr. Lansberg, the young but eminently 
learned Rabbi of the Berith Kodesh congregation, which 
represents in a marked degree the reform school of modern 
Judaism. The innovation into the worship of the Hebrews 
of the first prayer book in English has been effected here, 
the translation of the Hebrew ritual having been made by 
Dr. Lansberg, who is the foremost leader in this important 
change in the worship of the ancient people. Its adoption 
by the majority of his congregation — and that not without 
long: deliberation — gives Rochester the distinction of hav- 
ing the most advanced and liberal Hebrew congregation in 
the United States, — the first in the country to render its 
service intelligible to its members. Dr. Lansberg's ritual, 
in tentative use as yet, has been warmly approved by not a 
few of his brother rabbles, and the universal adoption of an 
English ritual is considered, even by many orthodox He- 



300 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

brews, as only a matter of time. At the meeting recently 
held for the consideration of the adoption of the new prayer- 
book, the following prominent members of the Berith Ko- 
desh congregation spoke in favor of the change : Simon 
Stern, Levi Adler, Max Lowenthal, Max Brickner, Max 
Cauffman, J. Brunswick, Moses Hays, S. M. Benjamin, B. 
Rothchild, Simon Hays, H. Schwartz, M. Van Bergh, S. 
Abels, Sol Wile ; while Gabriel Wile, Nathan Levi, Max 
Gutman, and I. Thalheimer urged its rejection. The ritual 
was adopted by a vote of 40 to 15. That an English ritual 
is indispensable has been for several years the key-note of 
modern Judaism. "If the Reform School of Judaism," says 
Raphael D. C. Lewin, " desires to continue the holy work 
of disseminating the true Judaic idea, and of bringing Jews 
and Gentiles to one common faith, vernacular preaching is 
indispensable." 

The'Rev. F. De W. Ward, D. D., in his valuable compen- 
dium of the " Churches of Rochester," gives a long list of 
" Literary and Ecclesiastical Preferments " from the Roch- 
ester clergy, — a range of promontories making special 
mention a serious affair. The " Life of Dr. Shaw," for forty- 
four years the beloved pastor of the "Old Brick Church," is 
a volume of itself. The story of the " Old Brick Church," 
another. "St. Patrick's Cathedral and its Bishop," another; 
and we must not forget in this connection the important 
constituency that would think the religious history of our 
city incomplete if it did not tell the story of " the house of 
Isaac and Amy Post." Of good preaching in Rochester 
there hath been no lack from the beginning ; nor has our 
giving of a Bishop to Illinois, another to Iowa, and still 
another to Maine, — Whitehouse, Lee, and Neely, of the 
Episcopal church ; three bishops to the Methodist ; Dr. 
O'Reilly to a Roman Catholic See of Connecticut ; presi- 
dents to colleges without stint, and beloved pastors to con- 
spicuous pulpits of larger cities, — apparently lessened our 
stream of persuasive eloquence in behalf of the gospel. 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 30 1 

Why we have never succeeded in founding a medical col- 
lege it is hard to explain. With the most eminent surgeon 
in the State outside of New York city, Dr. Edward jM. 
Moore, and a phalanx of skillful practitioners, representing 
established schools of medicine, we surely have every re- 
quirement for such a project; and yet our experiments have 
so far evolved failure rather than success. Our Central 
Medical College disbanded in 1852, — James H. Gregory, 
President of the Board of Trustees, and Erastus Darrow, 
Secretary. Dr. Charles S. Starr's efforts to establish a free 
medical dispensary with lectures on anatomy, the possible 
germ of a future college, have had little nourishment other 
than his zeal. The Chair of Surgery in the Medical College 
of Buffalo has for years been occupied by Dr. Moore, who, 
in addition to this considerable increase of duties, is Presi- 
dent of the National Surgical Association. He visits St. 
Mary's Hospital, as a rule, every Sunday afternoon, the 
good sisters esteeming him, as well they may, the greatest 
benefactor of the institution. Dr. Moore is to Rochester 
an essential part of our individuality, — one of our foremost 
representative men. His enlistment in any public move- 
ment — and that enUstment is easily gained if the movement 
be in the direction of real improvement or genuine reform 
— is an assurance at least of its deserving success. The 
stand our Red Cross Society has taken and held, one far in 
advance of that of any other city, may be credited to the 
fact that Dr. Moore is its president. Five original ideas 
have been contributed by him to medical science, and stand 
enumerated as follows: A perfect dressing for fractured 
clavicle ; a discovery of a dislocation, new to science, in 
connection with calles fracture ; a method of reduction and 
dressing in epiphyseal fracture of the upper end of hume- 
rus ; dressing of fractured nose, and a method of lithot- 
rity, since perfected by Bigelow, of Boston. At the begin- 
ning of his professional career he excited attention among 
physiologists by a series of original experiments, through 
vivisection, on the physiological actions of the heart. It is 
needless to add that Dr. Moore is to be found on the side 



302 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of those who, in these days when the total prohibition of 
vivisection has been attempted by legal enactment, would 
protect animals in vivisection and not from it. 

Archaeologists and ethnologists the world over associate 
Rochester chiefly with the name of Lewis H. Morgan, for 
many years the President of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, the founder of the " Morgan 
School of Ethnology," and the voluminous author of what 
constitutes the standard literature of the subjects to whose 
research and elucidation he devoted his life. In the long 
list of his many papers and books, there are few so fa- 
miliar to the general reader as "The League of the Iro- 
quois," "Montezuma's Dinner," and "The American Beaver." 
In his magnificent library building, completed but a few 
years before his death in 1881, may be found the carefully 
selected books relating to his special studies, an extensive 
collection of Indian relics, the gorget of Joseph Brandt, 
mounted beavers, and, the rarest thing of all, a Spanish 
Dictionary published in the city of Mexico in 1576. This 
valuable collection, with the rest of his entire and consider- 
able property, will, in event of his son's death without issue, 
pass to the University of the City of Rochester for a college 
for women. 

Mr. Morgan was one of the founders of "the club" chris- 
tened "The Pundit." "Some bright mischievous young 
ladies," writes Dr. Kendrick, explaining this christening, 
" of which Rochester possessed a larger proportion possibly 
than she does now, saw fit to speak of our members as 
' Pundits,' and this ' nominis umbra,' as a half-bantering, 
half-serious sobriquet, has, through subsequent years, hung 
a slight drapery of ornament around the unadorned naked- 
ness of our official designation." Mr. Morgan was one of 
the "Pundits." Its first meeting was at his house July 13, 
1854. He was called the foster-father of "the club," — five 
at the first reading meeting, and nine actual members of 
the body. " The club proceeded gradually to enlarge the 
list of its members," writes Dr. Kendrick in a sketch of its 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 303 

history for twenty-five years, " keeping in view the avoiding 
of unwieldy size, with regard not merely to the absolute 
merit of candidates for membership, but also their supposed 
clubable qualities, and such a balance of professions, pur- 
suits, and attainments as should secure a fair representation 
of the different leading lines of thought and departments of 
scientific and general investigation." The members of the 
club at its first regular meeting, when Hon. E. Peshine 
Smith read a paper upon the "Gold Currency," were M, 
B. Anderson, Calvin Huson, Jr., Rev. Dr. J. H. Mcllvaine, 
Lewis H. Morgan, John H. Raymond, Rev. Chester Dewey, 
Hon. Harvey Humphrey, and Rev. Dr. Asahel C. Ken- 
drick. 

As it was in the Pundit Club that Mr. Morgan read many 
of his writings before they appeared in print, discussing his 
theories with its members before considering them settled 
in his own mind, the work of that club, its far-reaching 
influence in the world, may be fitly considered as one of 
the important relations of his life. " It is difficult to say," 
writes Dr. Kendrick, "how many magazines have been en- 
riched, and how many books constructed from essays pre- 
pared for, or read and criticised in, this club. Such essays 
alone would make many large volumes. One learned pub- 
lication of the Smithsonian Institute, that on modes of 
reckoning consanguinity, was born in this club. Here 
were heard criticisms of the learned chapters in Mr. Mor- 
gan's work on Ancient Society. Here were presented the 
most thorough discussions which this country has produced 
on our aboriginal civilization. Here were forged the thun- 
derbolts that awoke a startled community as they were 
launched upon the head of an established church. In short 
nobody can tell how many papers that have delighted and 
edified the public in legal journals and popular and scien- 
tific magazines, have found their inspiration and first hear- 
ing and intelligent criticism in this body ; for the law of 
the club is criticism." 

The first general discussion in the club at its second 
meeting was upon Ethnology. At the fourth regular meet- 



304 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

ing Mr. Morgan read his first paper, " The Ancles." We 
find the following subjects treated in his subsequent papers: 
"English Slavery;" "Animal Psychology;" "The Laws of 
the Descent of the Iroquois;" Agassiz's "Theory of the 
Origin of the Human Race;" "The Indo-European Sys- 
tem of Consanguinity and Relationship," etc., etc. 

In the obituary of Mr. Morgan, which appeared in the 
" Democrat and Chronicle " the morning after his death, is 
the following : " Science, for which he had labored effi- 
ciently and conspicuously, will mourn one of its brightest 
lights extinguished ; for he was among the foremost inves- 
tigators of his time, had definitely settled some of the most 
perplexing questions in archaeology, and had achieved a 
world-wide reputation as a scholar, — a reputation perhaps 
more brilliant in Europe than in America." 

The " Pundits " were the honorary pall-bearers at his 
funeral, the sons of the members of the club bearing his 
remains from the library, which he had built with pleasant 
anticipations of the meetings around its table, to its final 
resting-place in the Morgan tomb at Mount Hope. 

The following are the names of the present members of 
"The Club": Martin B. Anderson, Theodore Bacon, Oscar 
Craig, George F. Danforth, Frederick L. Durand, William 
S. Ely, Asahel C. Kendrick, Samuel A. Lattimore, Albert 
H. Mixer, Edward M. Moore, William C. Morey, Howard 
Osgood, J. Breck Perkins, E. V. Stoddard, Augustus H. 
Strong, Frederick A. Whittlesey. 

Not less conspicuous than Lewis H. Morgan in ethnology 
and archaeology was Judge Addison Gardiner in a distin- 
guished judiciary circle. He began the practice of law in 
Rochester in 1822, and was our first Justice of the Peace. 
The firm of Gardiner & Selden, including its law student, 
Henry R. Selden, was remarkably prolific in judicial and 
political honors. It gave us three Judges of the Court of 
Appeals and two Lieutenant Governors. Addison Gardiner 
was twice elected to the office of Lieutenant Governor, was 
appointed District Attorney of Monroe County, Judge of 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 305 

the Eighth Circuit, and was ex-officio Vice Chancellor. On 
the organization of the Court of Appeals, in 1847, he was 
elected one of the judges of that court, served one term of 
eight years, and declined the renomination, equivalent to 
reelection. Judge Gardiner retired from the Court of Ap- 
peals long before any diminution of his physical or intellec- 
tual vigor, and found the truest enjoyment of his life in 
superintending his farm just outside the western boundary 
of the city, in quiet study, and in a sufficiency of legal busi- 
ness in hearing references to occupy his active mind. Im- 
portant cases were referred to and tried before him to the 
closing days of his tranquilly useful life. He died at his 
beautiful suburban home, June 5, 1883, one of the most emi- 
nent and honored representatives of the Rochester Bar. 

The Hon. Samuel L. Selden, the early partner of Judge 
Gardiner, with whom he studied and began practice, was 
for several years a Justice of the Peace of the city, and in 
1 83 1 was elected first Judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
of Monroe. He was afterwards Clerk of the Eighth Chan- 
cery Circuit, and in 1847 was elected Judge of the Supreme 
Court, and in 1856 to the Court of Appeals. "It is a re- 
markable fact," says his biographer in the "Contemporary 
Biography of New York," " that he was elected to the Su- 
preme Court and to the Court of Appeals before he had 
ever appeared at the bar of either of those courts." He 
resigned from the bench in 1862, very soon after the death 
of his wife, and the remaining years of his life, until his 
death in 1876, were spent in the seclusion of his library, 
from which he went forth chiefly to distribute his goods, 
both spiritual and material, to the poor and suffering, giv- 
ing away with the utmost privacy a considerable fortune 
in benefactions large and small, — his chief charge that the 
recipient should tell no man. The great sorrow of his 
life was the drowning before his eyes of his only surviv- 
ing child, a promising boy just entering his teens, and who 
had been easily rescued had the Judge been able to swim. 
What had been otherwise a joyless old age was illuminated 
by the happiness he created in joyless hearts. 



306 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

The Hon. Henry R. Selden, the surviving member of 
this trio of eminent judges, Lieutenant Governor in 1857^ 
was singularly favored in his environment as a student in 
the office of Gardiner & Selden, and that he made the most 
of his favoring conditions was amply proved in his subse- 
quent career. The two brothers are largely associated with 
the early history of telegraphy. Their exceptional energy 
and quick discernment made them prominent in the intro- 
duction and organization of the first lines of telegraphs. It 
was in the pioneer days of telegraphy (185 i) that Henry R. 
Selden was elected President of the New York and Missis- 
sippi Valley Telegraph Company, — its board of directors 
made up of Rochester capitalists. Hiram Sibley at that 
time was Sheriff of Monroe County, and it was through the 
influence of the Seldens that he was enlisted in the scheme 
of "operating in the vast regions west of Buffalo." 

As Reporter of the Court of Appeals, and Editor of the 
"New York Reports," and author of "Selden's Notes of 
Cases in the Court of Appeals," Henry R. Selden has made 
permanent and valuable contribution to legal knowledge. 
When the cause of Woman Suffrage gains its object, and 
the canonizing of its early advocates is in order, Henry R. 
Selden, for his able and unanswerable defense of Susan B. 
Anthony in the United States District Court of Albany, 
1873, for casting a vote at the presidential election of 1872, 
will not be forgotten, nor his plea that "women are citizens, 
and that, under the amendments of the Constitution, all 
citizens are entitled to the elective franchise." 

Each of this trio of famous jurists retired from active life 
when the honors of high position would have made that re- 
tirement seemingly impossible to less quiet and home-lov- 
ing natures. 

" Ah, why 
Should life all labor be ? " 

With the promotion of George F. Danforth to the Bench, 
we have four Rochester jurists eminent as Judges of the 
Court of Appeals of the State of New York. Including the 
late Hon. Sanford E. Church, Chief Judge of the Court of 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 307 

Appeals, — a Monroe County man, and for a time a resident 
of our city and always interested in our public movements, 
— we have had five, and may surely claim for the Rochester 
Bar an influence and eminence second to none. 

The name of Seth Green is one inseparable from Roch- 
ester, — his home from his school-boy days and earliest ex- 
periments in Fish Culture. All who have seen Seth Green 
speeding his fast horse on the Avenue, with the flyers in 
sleighing time, must have discovered the striking resem- 
blance between his face and that of the Santa Claus repre- 
sented in primer literature, — his long, white beard, merry 
eye, and conical sealskin cap heightening the illusion. His 
mission has made him his country's benefactor. The pre- 
vention of the wholesale and wanton destruction of fish, 
and the culture of the most desirable varieties, — and that 
chiefly for the benefit of the poor, — is emphatically the 
enlightened selfishness the promoters of many another 
scheme for the public good are seeking to teach. Seth 
Green's story is best told in a reported interview with him 
published in a recent New York " Evening Telegram " : — 

" The fishermen are opposed to our work because we ad- 
vocate making laws to stop fishing during the spawning 
season of the different kinds of fish. They have been in 
the habit of taking them on these spawning beds, and do 
not like to quit. They would take the last fish if they 
could. They have got about all of them in some localities. 
I have often been told by fishermen that they did not want 
the fish made any more plenty. They said if fish were 
scarce they could make as much money and would not have 
to handle half as many fish. But, I said to them, it will be a 
great help to the mass of the people. They told me to 'let 
the mass take care of themselves — we have to,' When I 
went to Holyoke, on the Connecticut River, in the year 1867, 
and made the discovery of hatching shad artificially, shad 
was selling for forty dollars per hundred, wholesale, and retail 
from seventy-five cents to one dollar each. While I was 
there, many mechanics told me that they bought one shad 



308 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

a year, just to say that they had had a shad that year ; and 
many of the poor people told me that they had not tasted 
shad for years. I told the fishermen that I was going to 
make shad plenty and cheap. They told me they did not 
want fish any more plenty nor any cheaper, and did their 
level best to keep me from making a success. They broke 
my experimental boxes to pieces when they could find them, 
and one night they tore the net — they thought — so that it 
could not be used any more. But I took a needle and 
mended it in two hours, which astonished them very much, 
as they had told me there was but one man around there 
that could mend square mesh, and he would not be found. 
He left the town soon after the net was torn. But the net 
was mended, and we fished that night, and caught the fish 
that I took the spawn from that made the success that was 
the means of having shad plenty forever. The four New 
England States did not pay me as much money — $154.24 
— as I had expended. There was one fish commissioner 
who told me that it would be a great honor to me, and 
would be the means of making me a great man. True, I 
do weigh about forty pounds more now than I did then, but 
it was not their money that paid the butcher's bills. Honor 
is all very well, if it is earned honestly, but I would not ad- 
vise any man to undertake to pay his butcher bill at the 
same market more than one month in that way. It is six- 
teen years since I made the success ; and if I had had to 
live on honor and promise, there would not be enough left 
of me to make a shad-ow. I visited the old fish-hatching 
ground again in the year 1874. It was soon noised about 
that I was there, and the men, women, and children came 
flocking down to shake hands, and say, 'God bless you!* 
That little group of poor people paid the debt with what 
was better than gold. I have no doubt I felt more elated 
while I was with that little party than General Grant ever 
did with all the receptions he received while he was in 
Europe." 

While we are in a mood of boastful reminiscence, we 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 309 

must not forget that Charlie Backus, of minstrel fame, was 
a Rochester boy ; that Manton Marble, Judge Tourgee, and 
Rossiter Johnson were graduates of our University, — the 
latter a genuine Frankford boy, as his story, " Phaeton 
Rogers," doth testify ; that J. T. Trowbridge hailed from 
this section, and that Montgomery Schuyler was one of 
the boys at Christ Church Rectory. Dr. Graham, of Gra- 
hamite celebrity, first promulgated his theories from our 
midst. One of the first Water-Cures in the country was 
Dr. Hamilton's, on Exchange Street. As has been already 
noted, telegraphy received its first strong impulse for devel- 
opment here, and the word "telegram" was coined by 
our citizen, Hon. E. Peshine Smith ; while the millionaires 
of the land for many years found their last rest in our glass 
caskets. The scientific world looks to the establishment of 
Bausch and Lomb for superior microscopes and optical in- 
struments of all kinds ; and did we not appreciate the honor 
of having two of our learned men, Dr. A. C. Kendrick and 
Dr. Howard Osgood, on the American Committee for the 
Revision of the Bible .? and is not Patrick Barry's Catalogue 
of the American Pomological Society the standard author- 
ity of fruit-growers the world round } Bishop McQuaid, of 
the Diocese of Rochester, represents the thought of a large 
constituency, and is the vigorous advocate of important 
changes in the public school system, by no means confined 
to our special locality. His utterances command a wide 
hearing, and had much to do in abolishing religious instruc- 
tion and Bible readings in the public schools. 

Our Asylum for Deaf Mutes, one of fifty-five in the coun- 
try, for an afflicted class constituting one in every two thou- 
sand of our population, is at the front in the advance move- 
ment for the education of mutes, maintaining that, by the 
method of articulation combined with the manual-alphabet, 
and the abolishing of the sign-language, the mute may be 
educated to speak intelligibly. The institution has about 
one hundred and fifty mutes, under the care of Professor 
and Mrs. Westervelt and their corps of capable teachers. It 



3IO ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

was established here some seven years ago, mainly through 
the influence of Mr. Gilman H. Perkins, the State allowing 
about three hundred dollars a year for each pupil. 

There seems no lack of charitable institutions in our 
city, so large and well managed are our two hospitals, in- 
dustrial schools, and several orphan asylums, to leave un- 
mentioned the special missions of individual congregations 
and organizations ; but Dr. Moore's suggestion, only yes- 
terday, that a Children's Hospital be built upon Lake On- 
tario Beach, meets cordial approval from every one, nebu- 
lous as are the plans for its foundation. Our Western 
House of Refuge and Girls' Reformatory have not yet at- 
tained all that their Superintendent, Levi S. Fulton, hopes 
to bring to pass in practical prison reform, if the coopera- 
tion of those upon whom the change in the system depends 
is not diverted by impracticable schemes and mistaken the- 
ories of philanthropy. 

Since the House of Refuge for Boys was opened, in 1849, 
some 6,230 boys have been received as inmates, and a con- 
siderable percentage of those dismissed from the institution 
are living honest and useful lives. The Girls' Reformatory 
was opened in 1876, and since that time some three hun- 
dred and sixty-five girls have been sheltered within its 
walls. Mrs. M. K. Boyd has been the matron from the 
first, — a woman as unlike the average reformatory matron 
as can be imagined ; a gentlewoman in the truest sense of 
the word. The high standard required of the women em- 
ployed in the Reformatory insures the healthy social atmos- 
phere permeating every department. When it is possible 
for Mr. Fulton to make the Refuge for boys all that the 
Reformatory is for girls, — and he has made the Reforma- 
tory what it is, — there will be no justification for criticism 
of what a more liberal appropriation would change for the 
better. When his plan for a graduating department is fully 
realized, and the present great unoccupied and unfurnished 
building outside the zvall is a home for the boys who have 
merited promotion, or have served their time at the Refuge, 
but have no place awaiting them if dismissed, — a home 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 311 

where they may be under the influence of the nearest ap- 
proach to family life the State can give them, and from 
which they may graduate with a measure of preparedness 

for what they must encounter upon their final discharge, 

we shall have an institution long needed, and the outcome 
of Mr. Fulton's recognition and understanding of that need. 
The Refuge is in a transition state, and it is believed that 
of the antagonism now existing between conflicting ideas 
regarding its system will come development and true re- 
form, in which reason rather than sentimentalism will be 
the determining principle. 

The years 1882 and 1883 were made memorable in the 
history of our city by the changes consequent upon the re- 
moval of the Central Railroad Depot from the west to the 
east side of the river, the building of the elevated tracks, 
and the new depot. State Street, and the west side gener- 
ally, suffered a transient depression from the sudden diver- 
sion of the great stream of railroad travel, the depreciation 
of rents, and the subsidence of patronage particularly of 
the west side old railroad hotels. The high tide of pros- 
perity, fairly overwhelming the hitherto quiet streets on the 
east side in the new depot quarters, was in striking contrast 
to what could be seen and heard in Mill Street, and at the 
northern base of the west side embankment. None could 
deny the benefit of the elevated tracks. It was emphatic- 
ally a case where individual interest must be sacrificed for 
the public good. The opening of Central Avenue and the 
new bridge, with a street railroad direct to the new depot 
from the west side, soon helped to relieve what proved but 
a temporary disarrangement, unavoidable in so complete 
and important a change. North St. Paul Street underwent 
a magical transformation. From a street of substantial 
and old time mansions, it seemed at once to have assumed 
the importance of a grand business thoroughfare, and lo ! 
old St. Paul's tower once thought so imposing is overtopped 
by Warner's magnificent building, and its site is already 
predestined for a grand hotel and unparalleled opera house. 



312 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

The Warner Ikiilding, second only to the Powers liuildings, 
was built last year at a cost of three hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars ; and it is largely owing to the indomita- 
ble enterprise of its builder that St. Paul Street has been 
widened ten feet, excepting in front of the Osburn and the 
Lamberton block, which improvement will come in time. 
Opposite the Warner Building is one approaching it in size 
and elegance, and, like it, a monument of one of our special 
industries, "Archer's Dental and Barber's Chairs," of world 
wide reputation. The old Rochesterian, uninformed of 
these recent changes, would lose his bearings entirely if 
suddenly transported to the top of Andrew Street hill, save 
for the Andrews homestead, which still is an oasis of the 
past, and the mansion of Darius Perrin, — the old home of 
Charles M. Lee, with its massive stone balustrade, an an- 
cient landmark said to have been cut at the Auburn prison. 
Old St. Paul's, and all that is left of its former environment, 
will be gone to-morrow. The congregation are already dis- 
cussing where the new church shall be built, and there is 
a disputed rumor of the union of the parish with that of 
Christ Church, East Avenue. 

An idea of the growth of the city in 1883 has been so 
concisely and accurately given in the columns of the "Dem- 
ocrat and Chronicle," the record is best presented in a re- 
print of that article, published in the daily issue, January 
I, 1884: — 

If the year that has just drawn to a close has been one of mis- 
fortune and disaster to the world at large ; if the terrible tornado, 
the awful earthquake, the devastating cyclone, and all the ele- 
ments of flood and fire, have laid waste cities and villages in this 
and other countries, to the city of Rochester it has been a year of 
unparalleled prosperity and wonderful growth. The leap that 
Rochester has taken in the past twelve months has been some- 
thing remarkable. People who traverse the leading thorough- 
fares daily, from one month to another, scarcely realize the av- 
erage growth of a city ; and buildings and railways and bridges 
are constructed without attracting their especial attention. It is 
the person who leaves the city and returns after a year or two 




ST. PAUL S CHURCH IN RUINS. 



Burned, .Sunday, July, 1847. 
Kev. John V. Van Ingen, D. D., Rector. 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 



313 



that discovers changes and improvements. But the progress of 
Rochester in 1883 has been so extraordinary and so potent, that 
citizens have felt the growth and have realized its magnitude. 
It has been a growth, however, as solid and enduring as it has 
been important. Here will be found a list of a few of the im- 
provements and prominent structures completed or begun in the 
city during the year 1883 : — 



Completion of the elevated tracks and erection of a 
new passenger station by the Central Hudson Rail- 
way at an expense of about . . . . . : 

Powers fire-proof hotel, completed and opened at an 
expense of about ....... 

The Warner Building, constructed and nearly com- 
pleted at an expense of about .... 

Church Street opened and improved at an expense of 
about ......... 

Warner Observatory, completed and opened at an ex- 
pense of about ....... 

St. Paul Street straightened at an expense of about . 

Central Avenue Bridge constructed and opened at an 
expense of about ....... 

The introduction and general adoption by the munici- 
pality and citizens generally of the electric lights. 

Completion and opening of that portion of the Roch- 
ester and Ontario Belt Railway, running from Roch- 
ester to Lake Ontario. 

General extension of the different routes of the street 
railway company and the construction of new routes. 



>2, 000,000 

630,000 

500,000 

165,000 

100,000 
165,000 

46,000 



OUR PROSPERITY, 

Seated in his handsome private office, his honor. Mayor Par- 
sons, last evening reviewed with a " Democrat and Chronicle " 
representative the remarkable prosperity of the city during the 
past year. " I think," said the mayor, " that our citizens have 
more than usual cause to rejoice at the record of the year, so far 
as our own beautiful city is concerned. It is perhaps needless 
to speak of the great improvements that have been made during 
the year, for they are familiar to us all. Our city has grown in 
wealth, importance, and in population, and it hardly seems possi- 
ble for the sun to rise to-morrow upon a more prosperous, beauti- 



314 ROCHESTIiR: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

fill, and progressive city on the face of the globe. We have been 
singularly free from the disasters of flood and fire and the ele- 
ments ; and the loss for the year from fire — the only disaster we 
have encountered — has been surprisingly small. There is one 
feature about the year that I would refer to, and that is the pros- 
perous condition of our laboring and poor classes. No public 
official perhaps, unless it be the poor-master, has the opportunity 
to feel the effect of prosperity on these classes that I do, and the 
past year has been a noticeable one to me. In the eight years I 
have been mayor I have never received so few calls from the poor 
and the needy as in 1883. There has really been plenty of work 
for willing hands. The year has been a busy one in the munici- 
pal government — perhaps the busiest since our city charter was 
secured. All the officials have had their hands full, and some 
of the offices have been over-crowded with business. Yes," said 
the mayor in conclusion, " this has, I think, been the most pros- 
perous and progressive year I have ever known in Rochester." 

EXECUTIVE WORK OF THE YEAR. 

The record of the year in the executive department of the 
government is a splendid illustration of the city's rapid growth 
and progress. The many public improvements — the fire and 
water works department, the street repairing and cleaning depart- 
ment — are all under the supervision of the executive board, and 
the work of the office has greatly increased. The street repairs 
during the year have been extensive. Lake Avenue has been 
repaired at an expense of $5,527.77 ; Caledonia Avenue, at an 
expense of $830.25 ; St. Joseph Street, at an expense of $369.95; 
North St. Paul Street, at an expense of $1,045.72 ; and a number 
of other streets have been repaired under the supervision of 
Superintendent Reynolds. During the year two new hose houses 
have been erected. A new Hayes truck has been purchased at 
an expense of $3,500, and a new hose cart at an expense of $700. 
Arrangements are now making for the enlargement of the fire de- 
partment, and a new hose company will be placed in the new 
Lyell Avenue House. The extension of water mains is one of the 
improvements which gives the board considerable work, as ap- 
plications are constantly coming in for water from different streets 
for which no provision has been made. Below will be found an 
approximate table of the amount of water mains laid during the 
year ending yesterday : — 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 315 

Number of streets in which pipes have been laid . . 105 
Number of hydrants set ..... . oo 

Number of stop holes set . . . . . . .105 

Approximate number of miles of pipe laid, all sizes . 12.45 
Number of lineal feet of pipe laid by contract during the 

year, all sizes ........ 61,926 

Number of feet of pipe laid, all sizes, by repair gang . 3,847 

THE STREET IMPROVEMENTS. 

"Busy year.^ Well I should say so," said City Surveyor Pea- 
cock to the "Democrat and Chronicle " representative. " I like 
hard work, but I don't want too much of it. You can say that 
1883 has been the busiest year I have seen since I have been city 
surveyor. In addition to the regular work of the office, such as 
attending to sewers, street grading, bridges, etc., I have had the 
work of renumbering the city. Big job, you say. Well, when I 
get it off my hands you will see a happy man. While I am de- 
voting considerable time to this work, it is being carefully and 
thoroughly done, and the cost of the work completed to date 
is considerably within the amount appropriated for that work by 
the council. A great many streets have been definitely decided 
upon, but it is not deemed advisable to announce the same until 
the whole is completed, which will be about the first of April. 
Here is an approximation, in round numbers, of the regular work 
that has been done under my supervision during the year : — 



Number of streets improved 

Expense of streets improved 

Grading approaches to Lyell Avenue Bridge 

Stone sewers constructed 

Expense of stone sewers constructed . 

Pipe sewers constructed .... 

Expense of pipe sewers constructed 

Sewers cleaned ..... 

Expense of sewers cleaned .... 

Plank walks laid ig 

Expense of laying plank walks $5,400 

Flag walks not included in street improvements . 3 

Expense of flag walks $2. coo 

Central Avenue Bridge 46,000 

Lyell Avenue Lift Bridge :3,ooo 



1 1 

$1 10,000 

I.2QO 
8 

$27,000 

$29,000 

2 

$1,000 



3l6 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

THE RECORD IN THE COURTS. 

It does not take a remarkably intelligent person to understand 
that, with the rapid growth of the city, with the widening and 
opening of streets, etc., the duties of the city attorney have greatly 
increased. The work in City Attorney Beckley's office has almost 
doubled within the last year, and he has been obliged to greatly 
increase his clerical force at his own expense. The office is now 
rushed with legal business, the numerous suits brought against 
the city by the Honeoye millers rendering the clerical work un- 
usually heavy. Below will be found a brief table showing the 
work of the city attorney during the year : — 
Number of actions pending in courts of record on January i, 

1883, in which the city is a party 57 

Number of actions brought for and against the city in courts 

of record from January i, 1883, to December 31, 1883 . 40 
Number of actions in courts of record tried or otherwise dis- 
posed of from January i, 1883, to December 31, 1883 . 51 
Number of actions pending in courts of record December 31, 

1883 46 

Number of actions in which the city was unsuccessful on the 

trial 3 

Verdicts or report in last mentioned cases as follows : — 

Hooker v. City of Rochester $600 

Dignin v. City of Rochester 500 

The National Gas Light Co. v. City of Rochester . . 995 



$2,095 
The aggregate amount claimed in above three cases . 24,500 

In all other cases tried the city has been successful. 

The above does not include any actions or proceedings in the 
municipal court or police court. 

Number of street opening cases pending January i, 1883 . i 
Number since instituted in which commissioners have been 

appointed ......... 9 

Number pending on December 31, 1883 .... 3 

THE YEAR IN THE TREASURY. 

The monthly reports of City Treasurer McGlachlin to the 
Common Council have enabled the people to keep well posted in 
regard to the condition of the funds of the treasurv, and but lit- 



MEN AND THINGS NOTABLE. 317 

tie could be added in this article. The work in the treasurer's 
office has increased somewhat during the year, but the clerical 
force has remained the same. The receipts during the year at 
the treasurer's office have been as follows : — 

Receipts from January i, 1883, to December 31, 

1883, on account of general city tax . . . $1,059,940.48 

Expenditures for local improvements . . 498,384.00 

Receipts on local improvements .... 3oo»353-73 
Receipts for water rents during the year 1883 . 150,000.00 

The Rochesterian of 1934 will appreciate this clipping 
from the file of the Rochester " Democrat and Chronicle," 
Charles E. Fitch editor in chief. 

Some one has said that the story of our lives depends 
upon what is crowded out. The realization of all that must 
be crowded out from this closing resume of the most nota- 
ble persons and events in our history gives a new signifi- 
cance to what may be applied to the stories of cities as 
of individuals. The restrictions of a topical rather than a 
statistical narrative, a synthetical rather than an analytical 
sketch, will, it is to be hoped, excuse seeming inadvertence 
and neglect. In drawing to the limits assigned for this 
story historical, a comparison of the subjects noted with 
those deserving at least allusion, and which must remain 
unmentioned, tempts the writer to name at least the sub- 
jects of the unwritten chapters. That the thread of the 
narrative is broken by important omissions may be over- 
looked, if it is remembered that the extraordinary rather 
than the ordinary was given precedence. Rochester did 
gloriously in the War of the Rebellion, but it was just what 
every other city in the North was doing ; and the story of 
our sacrifices, enthusiasm, and devotion, varies very little 
from that of all the others — a story that in barest statis- 
tics fills a volume, and which words may never tell after 
all. And yet that chapter, " Rochester in the Rebellion," 
is the one that was laid aside most regretfully, — the remi- 
niscences of the first enlistments, the first camp, the meet- 
ings of the women at the churches to sew for the volun- 
teers, the presentation of banners, the return of the first 



3l8 ROCHESTER: A STORY JIISTORICAL. 

wounded soldier, Charles Buckley, from the front, and the 
cheering of the crowd all the way from the depot to his 
home ; the effect of the news of brave ones fallen, the bring- 
ing home of the honored dead, the presidential election 
during the war, the work of the Soldiers' Aid Society, the 
fairs, the grand bazaar in Corinthian Hall, the Fourth of 
July dinner for soldiers at the Court-House, the startHng 
news, one Sunday evening, of an expected invasion at the 
mouth of the river ; the war meetings, the bounty jumpers, 
the hospital boxes, the arrival at our hospitals of wounded 
soldiers from the battle of the Wilderness, the Arcade on 
the night of the news from Richmond, " Lee has surren- 
dered ! " — a long catalogue of events opening a work for 
the historian, which, unless fully treated in its local excep- 
tional features, would create more dissatisfaction than the 
recognition of the topic as a part of our history already told 
in that of the country at large. 

"A Few Failures" was the subject of another unwritten 
chapter, wherein was to be told, among many things, the 
story of Buell's Avenue, — if that may be called a failure, 
which, having served its original purpose, is left to inglo- 
rious ruin and decay. It was October lo, 1843, that Alder- 
man Seward, in the Common Council, made a motion that 
the mayor be authorized to execute a contract with Wil- 
liam Buell for the construction of a macadamized road to a 
steamboat landing on the west side of the Genesee River. 
This road was to be a gradual descent 75 feet wide for 900 
feet at the southern terminus, and 100 feet wide the re- 
mainder of the distance, and its cost was not to exceed 
^5,000. It did cost Judge Buell, however, over $8,000, but 
the City Fathers held strictly to the terms of the contract. 
The picturesc|ue road is to-day more picturesque than safe, 
and will in a few years, unless extensively repaired, be a 
thing of the past. It is a very fair sample, however, of 
some of the notable failures of Rochester. 

Rochester : a story of to-day, is a volume of itself, and 
what it may possibly be in 1934, on the one hundredth 
anniversary of our City Charter, some of the prophets among 
us shall now declare. 




FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. 
Built 1876. 







lO ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 



are as near the centre of the city as you can be ; and so it 
will be fifty years to come." 

The prophet who has honor in his own country is our 
mayor, — five times elected. 

We judge of the future by the past [says Mayor Parsons]. 
Fifty years ago Rochester stood, in point of population, twenty- 
first among the cities of the United States. Despite the almost 
miraculous growth of some western towns, then unknown, she has 
held her own, and still retains her former rank as to numbers, 
while in respect to the enterprise, and intelligence, and the men- 
tal, moral, patriotic, and business character of her citizens, no 
city in the land surpasses her. 

It is my prediction that within the next fifty years Rochester 
will include Brighton village, and extend to Lake Ontario. It will 
also include half the town of Gates, and reach to Irondequoit Bay. 
She will outnumber Albany, Detroit, Providence, Washington, 
and Louisville, and will equal, if not surpass, Milwaukee, Pitts- 
burg, Newark, and Cleveland. Her educational institutions and 
business facilities will continue second to none in the country; 
she will remain a city of homes and beauty, the pride of her in- 
habitants, and the envy of her neighbors. 

The Rev. Dr. Lansberg, of the Hebrew Congregation 
Berith Kodesh, contributes the following as his outlook of 
the future, — his hopes rather than prophecies, — his "re- 
luctantly told dreams " : — 

The external aspect of religious denominations will be greatly 
changed fifty years hence ; for in all that concerns religious form 
the progress of men is exceeding slow ; but there will be a great 
progress concerning the substance of religion. 

It will be practically recognized that soundness of doctrine and 
profession do not go far to atone for moral shortcomings. The 
working man will understand that his interests are identical with 
those of the capitalist, and the most religious people will acknowl- 
edge that science is not antagonistic to religion. 

It will sound incredible that there was a time when government 
offices were filled, not with the most capable and honest men, but 
with those who were the best workers for a political party, regard- 
less of their capacity and honesty. 

It will be as little understood in 1934 how men could honestly 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAL^TER. 32 1 

advocate that fifty million people should be heavily taxed for the 
protection of sixty thousand manufacturers, as we can understand 
to-day how religious people could, twenty -five years ago, call 
slavery a divine and moral institution. 

The most imposing building in our city in 1934 will be the 
Reynolds Library, which will not only contain a complete collec- 
tion of books from all departments of knowledge, but will be used 
by many hundreds of laborers and their families, particularly on 
Sunday. On that day crowds will visit the reading-rooms, and 
the valuable collections of objects of art and science exhibited 
for the instruction of the people. 

Fine concerts and lectures on scientific subjects will attract 
large audiences on Sunday afternoons and evenings. The whis- 
key saloons will be closed, not by the enforcement of Sunday 
laws, but for lack of customers. Those who should still have the 
face to advocate the closing of libraries, art museums and galleries, 
on Sunday will be classified with those who, in the last year of 
the reign of Charles II., opposed the introduction of lanterns to 
light up the streets of London on moonless nights. 

Max Lansberg. 

Dr. J. H. Thomas, a prominent Christadelphian, and au- 
thor of several works highly prized by literalists in biblical 
interpretation, gave answer as follows : — 

What will be the condition of the world fifty years from now ? 
From a Christadelphian point of view, it is possible, even probable, 
that the " dispensation of the fullness of times " will have been 
ushered in, and a theocracy established upon the mountains of 
Israel, in the person of Jesus Christ and those associated with 
him as kings and priests for the age. As a result of this theoc- 
racy, God's down-trodden people, Israel, will be reestablished in 
their own land, after all the rebellious ones have been purged 
out. Jerusalem, rebuilt in splendor and glory, will be the me- 
tropolis of the world. All nations being subjugated. Gentile 
domination, political and ecclesiastical, in all its varied forms, 
will cease. . . . Monsters in crime and devisers of iniquity hav- 
ing perished during the work of subjugation, the world will be 
saved from scheming politicians, usurping demagogues, corrupt 
syndicates, grasping monopolies, and cruel oppressors, and lifted 
21 



322 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

into a happy condition of prosperity and peace, under the right- 
eous rule of God's royal priesthood and holy nation. . . . 

Dr. J. H. Thomas. 

There are those who prophesy that in 1934 the present 
site of the old l^rick Church will be covered with great 
commercial houses, or the iron tracks of railroads, — unless 
railroads are then a thing of the past. Be that as it may, 
the old Jirick Church will always have an important place 
in our history, and this letter of greeting from him who for 
forty-four years has been the beloved pastor of the Second 
Presbyterian Church, and one of our foremost representa- 
tive men, independent of his parochial relations, will be 
read with peculiar interest : — 

To the Pastor of the Brick Church in the Year of Our Lord 1934. 

Dear Brother, — At this present writing you are the coming 
man. Not near enough yet for me to see your form, nor hear your 
voice, nor tell who you are. But you will be here by the time this 
reaches you. I send these few lines in advance for two reasons. 
I want to express the hope that the Brick Church is to you what 
it ever was to me, — as considerate in its demands, as charitable 
in its judgments, as earnest in its cooperation, and as true and 
loyal to all its duties, as faithful a people, as noble a church as 
God ever intrusted to the care of a frail and fallible man. 

Then I want to congratulate you on living in the noontide 
splendor of the latter-day glory. The time so often foretold in 
the Scriptures and so clearly foreshadowed, — the time for which 
our Great High Priest so earnestly prayed and the whole creation 
impatiently waited, — has come at last. You all are one. There 
is but one church now on earth, — the Holy Apostolic Church of 
Christ, " without spot or wrinkle or any such thing," nothing 
to mar her beauty, nothing to waste her strength. You can all 
worship in the same temple, you can all sit down at the same 
table, and your hearts keep as good time as the harps of the 
heavenly world. You have gathered your differences and divis- 
ions and dissensions, you have gathered your party names and 
party banners and buried them out of sight, and you have taken 
down the walls that kept us apart and built a monument over 
them, and on that monument you have inscribed the epitaph of 
the infidel, — the only monument where it would not be out of 




BRICK CHURCH, PRESBYTERIAN 
Built iS6o. 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER. 323 

place, — "Death is an eternal sleep." No trump of God, no 
voice of archangel, will ever call bigotry out of its grave. I con- 
gratulate you, dear brother. We waited and watched for the day, 
— watched until our eyes were weary, waited until our hearts did 
ache, — but died without the sight. Dear brother, once more I 
congratulate you. You have two heavens, — a heaven here and 
a heaven hereafter ; and by making the best of the one you 
make the most of the other. May God spare you still longer 
than He did me, and if any clouds have occasionally darkened 
your sky may they only add to the glories of your setting sun. 

James B. Shaw, 
In the forty-fourth year of his pastorate. 

The optimistic vision of Dr. Shaw finds its contrast in 
that of Dr. W. H. Piatt, Rector of old St. Paul's, — the au- 
thor of what has been called the most irrefutable answer to 
the Ingersoll Lectures yet published. Dr. Piatt looks for- 
ward one hundred years and writes : — 

"If causes now active produce their probable effects, civi- 
lization, in 1984, will have radically changed. The struggle 
for existence is intense, and to millions upon millions it is 
becoming more and more hopeless. Dishonesty and sui- 
cide are mournfully frequent. For self-preservation against 
overwhelming competition men combine ; combination be- 
gets combination, and the struggle is transferred from indi- 
viduals to organized masses of individuals. The unification 
of social units includes all classes and interests, — farmers, 
mechanics, employees, teachers, — in a word, all energies 
and employments, from bankers to bootblacks, are organized 
into associative power. The trades and professions are 
overcrowded ; the relations of capital and labor are out of 
equilibrium ; machinery displaces men both in shops and on 
farms ; the individual man as man with a soul and a des- 
tiny is nothing. It is an age of corporations, and corpora- 
tions have no religion, and corporate aims are all. With 
the loss of man as the social unit, there is lost all the moral 
and religious influence of man and his moral relations. The 
social problem is civil, not moral. The State governs by 
force, where man ought to govern himself by moral reason. 



324 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Unifications in the name of religion are for sociability in one 
, direction, and for corporate power in another. The influ- 
ence of religion upon personal character is less observable 
than it is as a means to associative or hierarchical aims. 
Unifications in religion will destroy religion, unless they 
produce in the human heart the fruit of love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and 
temperance. With the exchange of true religion for the 
sentimental form, society and individuals lose its power 
upon the individual heart and character. In the Church 
the maximum of form is the minimum of religion, just as 
in the State the maximum of power is the minimum of 
liberty ; the rhythmic alternations of civilizing force have 
shadowed undulations of right and wrong, of despotism and 
freedom, of progress and regress. In the reign of God 
there are eras of catastrophes. The cold, formal, dead 
religion of 1984 will afterward arise from the tomb of its 
own ashes, into which it is now descending. It will come 
back from Egypt, but through the wilderness, with its 
golden calf and deadly serpents, and the discipline of suf- 
fering experiences. Religion will die as a form, but revive 
as a worship. Iconoclastic science will unmask the false 
god and reveal the true one." 

Mr. George H. Humphrey, a son of the late Judge Har- 
vey Humphrey, and a member of the Rochester Bar, gives 
the following from his beacon-point : — 

"The changes that half a century, with its varied prog- 
ress, will make in the practice of the law, will be, — 

" 1st. The greatly diminished use of strong drink, by re- 
ducing crime to a ininivnnn, will have done away with police 
courts, courts of sessions, and of oyer and terminer. A 
criminal case will be a rarity, and criminal justice will re- 
quire for its administration no separate tribunal. 

"2d. The judges will have grown more serene and pa- 
tient, while the bar looking with well-deserved contempt 
upon the invective, the coarse repartee, and the excited pas- 
sions of old-time trials, will unite with the judges in harmo- 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER. 325 

nious endeavor to promote justice, and to attain to the very- 
right of the case. It will then be recognized that right and 
justice promote the interests both of plaintiff and defend- 
ant ; the asperities of litigation will cease, and adversaries 
will strive only to reach, in a spirit of charity, the truest 
equity. 

" 3d. The principles of commercial law will be so well 
settled and so easily determined, that litigation will be 
greatly diminished, while the grand old maxim of sjmvi 
cuiqiic will have its true signification, and be attained with- 
out the speedy resort to litigation which is now the rule, 
and ought to be the exception. The avenues to the bar 
will be better guarded ; the elucidation of its principles re- 
quire a higher order of mind, because confined to more dif- 
ficult questions ; its members, as the guardians of liberty and 
property, recognized as belonging to the ' honorable order 
of advocates,' will have more influence than now as makers 
and interpreters of the laws. -Every lawyer will become in 
truth amicus ctirice, aiding by his learning, in the application 
of advanced legal science, to the facts of the case. May we 
not have to wait fifty years for it, sed Deus diem /est inet!" 

George T. Parker has his prophecy of the future of the 
Erie Canal : — 

"In fifty years from now the Erie Canal will have been 
abandoned as a canal, and converted into an immense rail- 
road with four or more tracks owned by the State, the 
rolling-stock owned and operated by individuals and trans- 
portation companies. . . . The centre or inner tracks will 
be reserved for through trains, the outer tracks for local 
freight. 

" Any person or company will be at liberty to furnish and 
use rolling-stock, or supply motive power within certain 
restrictions as to time and place, upon paying toll to the 
State. The State to keep the track in repair, attend all 
switches, and regulate the running of trains," etc. 

Mrs. Boyd, the Matron of the Reformatory for Girls, 
writes as follows of the future of her work : — 



326 ROCHESTER: A STORY HTSTORICAL. 

"There will ticver be any great success in reclaiming de- 
linquent girls till the work is in the hands of thoroughly 
trained, completely organized, and entirely consecrated bands 
or orders of women ! Every day and hour of my experience 
only strengthens this conviction. 

" These w^omen should be powerfully imbued with a 
broad humanitarianism, with no shadow of sectarianism to 
dim their perceptions or bias their judgment, but should 
move with one grand accord, — an irresistible force. No 
room in this scheme for maudlin sentiment born of uncul- 
tivated emotions ; but wide scope for wise discrimination, 
calm judgment, and homely common sense." 

Susan B. Anthony looks forth from her watch tower and 
confidently proclaims : — 

" Fifty years from now, I see our National Constitution 
fairly interpreted and justly administered, in accordance 
with the spirit and letter of its solemn guaranties for per- 
sonal liberty and political equality. I see the women of 
our Republic in full possession of their rightful crown of 
citizenship, — the ballot: voting and being voted for, mak- 
ing and unmaking law\s and law-makers ; side by side with 
men in caucus meetings, nominating conventions, at the 
polls, in legislative and executive councils, in courts of law ; 
and, everywhere, I see them the peers of men, respected 
and respectful, self-poised, noble, womanly women, with all 
the powers and graces of womanhood developed and per- 
fected in the atmosphere of freedom and equality. 

" And in this good time coming when w^omen's opinions 
shall be respected and her vote counted at the ballot-box, 
— that great gathering-place of public sentiment to crystal- 
lize into law, — I see no 'learned' men or 'sycophantic' wo- 
men gravely discussing * woman's intellectual inferiority,' 
or doggedly prescribing 'woman's proper sphere.' A just 
estimate of her mental abilities has settled the question of 
their equality, — not identity; and an abiding faith in her 
sagacity of instinct enables even the most timid and conser- 
vative to trust her to find her own proper sphere, and, per- 
chance, aid man in keeping within his orbit." 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER. 327 

Dr. Charles Sumner Dolley, having been transported in 
imagination to 1934, finds himself approaching Rochester 
on the Erie Railroad, — an old man, who has spent his days 
since 1883 in the South : — 

" Roundpie Station ! Why, yes ! We will soon be in 
Avon — What ! No station there ? ' Burned down a sec- 
ond time and never rebuilt ! ' I find as I come nearer my 
old home everything is going to decay. The best blood of 
Rochester and vicinity seems to have left it in '83, the year 
the sun spots were so bad there. . . . 

"Ah ! those buildings ahead of me are new, the tender of 
the Swing Bridge will tell me what they are. ' Here, boy ! 
Where is the Swing Bridge tender } ' ' Never had any, sir !' 
'What! don't they use the canal any more .^ ' 'No sir!' 
sweeping his hand toward the ten or twelve massive edifices 
on both sides of the old ditch ; ' only to drain the public 
buildings into, and for a skating rink in the winter. I have 
heard my father tell how steamboats used to pass here, but 
I never saw any. That building ! why, that 's the post- 
ofiice and custom-house, and that's the fire department, 
those are the county buildings, and that is the opera 
house.' . . . 

" Before me, occupying the entire street, is a huge turn- 
table, sending cars north, south, east, and west, with four 
tracks on each street, and not a horse to be seen. A po- 
Uceman tells me that the car company monopolized the 
street several years ago, all but a narrow strip for bicycles, 
and merchandise is transported by dispatch lines, run by 
air compressed at the Lower Falls, no horses being allowed 
within the city limits. 

"Taking a Monroe Street car, I pass, at St. Paul Street, 
a curious structure resembling a huge mass of ice, at which 
people and dogs are drinking. It is, I learn, a fountain 
presented to the 'city by the 'Crystal Casket Works,' to 
exhibit the material from which they make their patent 
glass coffins. . . . 

"I certainly miss something as I ride along Court Street, 
and the conductor tells me they formerly had a park or 



328 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

square there, which I remember as Washington Square ; 
but that a number of years since the executive board de- 
cided that city and country, like church and state, could not 
go together, and so sold the city squares, with the notice 
to residents that if they wished the country they could find 
it outside. 

..." I must leave untold many things. How the resi- 
dents of Rochester in 1934 must place all their income in 
the city treasury in lieu of taxes, out of which the city al- 
lows a limited percentage ; how the city fathers hold office 
for life, and live in fine residences along the Boulevard or 
Irondcquoit Bay. How one after another of the various 
public libraries and art galleries are stored away in un- 
known lofts. How Hemlock water is dealt out per capita, 
and any person wishing more than his share must get a 
prescription from his physician. How the old Flemish 
Guilds have been revived, and no man can carry on a trade 
outside a ' union,' and cannot even teach his own son his 
trade. 

" I shall remain a few days to visit the incomplete Sol- 
diers' Monument, and the ruins of my old Alma Mater, the 
University, and shall then hasten back to the South, where 
ever-increasing sun spots have, as yet, exerted none of their 
dire influence, and where municipalities are governed by 
the tax-payers and not by the tax-collectors. 

" Your loving grandfather, C. S. Dolley." 

" To E. P. J.. Charleston, S. C." 

From under the palm-tree of the Post Office Department 
comes the prophecy of W. Seward Whittlesey, a son of the 
late Hon. Frederic Whittlesey : — 

"The advanced American of 1934 will enjoy quicker and 
better mail facilities than we. In 1834 it took from four to 
six days to receive mail from New York city. It now takes 
eleven hours. I believe that less than one hour will accom- 
plish the same result in 1934, through a subterranean pas- 
sage. What will be the motive power that will propel this 
new agency I cannot answer. Possibly we are now em- 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER. 329 

ploying it in its infancy, or it may be power yet undiscov- 
ered. Railroads can never attain a much greater degree 
of speed than at present. Other modes for a more rapid 
transit for mails will have to be opened. The Erie Canal 
may be contracted and used for that purpose. Who knows ? 
"The post-office in 1934 will probably own and occupy a 
building as large as the present one of H. H. Warner. 
Stamps will be obtainable at drug, book, and cigar stores, 
as well as 'ye corner grocery,' a system which ought to be 
adopted at once. W. S. Whittlesey." 

The following is from the Superintendent of the Brush 
Electric Light Company : — 

Fifty years hence telegrams will be sent for one fifth of present 
rates, and one hundred different messages will be transmitted on 
a single wire, and at the same time, without interference. 

Telephones will be in universal use, and we will be able to 
converse with friends in foreign lands ; telephones will also have 
phonographic attachments, which will record all conversation. 

By means of phonoscopes with selenium plates, we will be able 
to photograph objects from a distance. 

Electric lighting will be used without stint, wires will be under 
ground, and electricity will be stored in large reservoirs, to be 
drawn therefrom at will The lights will be perfectly steady and 
white, and the lamps will last a year without any attention. 

Electricity will be our motive power in steamships, rail- 
roads, etc. George A, Redman. 

Our famous photographer, J. H. Kent, has succeeded in 
photographing the following letter, written May i, 1934: — 

Rochester, N. Y., May i, 1934. 

Dear Don, — Bob has just left by the " Lightning Pneu- 
matic " for New York, and goes direct to Havre by the " Dynamio 
Balloon," which leaves the Bridge at 2.13 this p. m. His bulle- 
tins will reach me every thirty minutes until he arrives out. 

It takes three weary days to go by this line ; but since the 
signaling communications have been completed we feel more 
reconciled to the " slow coach." They say a Hindoo overcame 
the last difficulty from some long-forgotten lore in the Sanskrit. 



330 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Bob left tomes of clear remembrances in the phonograph. 

Ours is the latest, with all the improved attachments ; talks 
fluently, with polished intonations, and is punctilious as to punc- 
luation, more resonant than the clearest echo. 

I could n't resist the temptation, just now, to leave you for a 
wink, to touch three keys at random. 

What do you think Bob said to me 1 " Pansy," in ten shaded 
tints of tone. I fear I shall be a much wilted Pansy before the 
aerial ship returns. Ten long days ! 

Grimshaw came around with his mysterious pocket photo- 
graphic arrangements and caught all Bob's fleeting emotions on 
the fiy, especially the one when on his knees looking for a de- 
moralized collar-button, and another just when he snapped his 
finger between the jaws of his portmanteau. Ten views in ten 
quick flashes, all to be transferred to my ten digitals, — my rosary. 

The air is gay this morning with balloons experimenting with 
Mars. With all these mirrors and double duplicated reflectors, 
they say they have already discovered that the " Mars-in-law " 
are held in high esteem up there, — never traduced. 

That may not be strictly authentic, but it shows science is 
pushing in the right direction. 

I 'm screened by six impregnable umbrellas as I write. No 
one knows when she may be picked up for print by one of those 
wandering photographic batteries. These artistical balloonists 
are as unscrupulous as vultures. Bob was caught in a dog-fight 
he was innocently passing, the other day. . . . 

Grimshaw is to photograph Bob with his electric camera as 
soon as the airy argosy touches terra firma on the other side. 

P. S. — Just received the first impression, and am happy. The 
photograph was gotten six minutes after his arrival, and came, all 
finished, thirty-five minutes later ! Bob's Wife. 

If Henry O'Reilly had prophesied, in his history written 
nearly fifty years ago, that our public schools in 1884 would 
be what they are to-day, he would have been thought a 
falser prophet than our present superintendent can be, by 
the most pessimistic educator who reads the following: — 

In 1934, educatirnal methods of earlier days will be revived 
by educational enthusiasts, and described as ihe " New Educa- 
tion." 

The cry will still be for broader culture and more thorough 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER. 33 1 

training in the science of education, and in theory and practice, 
in those who follow the profession of teaching, 

, The teacher will be magnified at the expense of methods, and 
methods at the expense of the teacher. 

The question of text-book or no text-book will still be dis- 
cussed, and will be apparently no nearer a settlement than it is 
to-day. 

Manual and training-schools and kindergartens will be gener- 
ally established ; whether as a part of our public school system 
or not, does not yet appear. 

Perfection in ventilation and other sanitary conditions will still 
be a desideratum for school buildings. 

Teachers thoroughly trained for their profession will be ur- 
gently asking for larger salaries. 

The public schools will be even more popular than they are 
to-day, and will then, as now, be overcrowded, while the Board 
of Education will be asking for more money with which to erect 
new buildings. 

The school buildings of 1934 will be heated by steam. 

Four high schools will crown our city system of schools, around 
which will be grouped one hundred and fifty primar}', intermedi- 
ate, and grammar schools. 

Our public schools, as now, will be held responsible for all 
failures in home training. 

The question will still be discussed whether it is possible to 
frame a law to compel a parent to give his child at least the ele- 
ments of an education, that will be heartily supported by public 
opinion. 

Ere then, the high school will have demonstrated its right to a 
place in our system of schools, and that right will be no more 
questioned than that of our grammar schools to the place they 
occupy. 

Our public schools will be praised and blamed, will have their 
friends and foes, and will still be the hope of our city fifty years 
from now. S. A. Ellis, Superintendent 

D. M. Dewey, at the risk of being styled a Venner or a 
Wiggins, contributes the following, under the head of 
"Probabilities," from his art outlook : — 

..." Most of the paintings now supposed to adorn our 
parlors will have been banished to the attic. The greatest 



232 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

progress will be in historical and ecclesiastical art. Paint- 
ings will beautify the walls of the magnificent cathedrals 
and churches of the future. . . . Etchings and hand- 
wrought line engravings will take the place of the machine- 
work of the present. . . . There will be many public and 
private art galleries, and it will not be necessary to depend 
upon Italian sculptors for our finest monuments, busts, etc. 
In architecture there will be less improvement so far as 
external effect is concerned, but there will be a great ad- 
vance in the methods of heating, ventilating, plumbing, and 
the general sanitary arrangements. The great progress 
will be in ecclesiastical architecture. There will be no 
more shot-towers, Chinese pagodas, or churches resembling 
bonded warehouses with restaurant attachment. The sa- 
cred character of the edifice will be its idea throughout, 
and sacred and secular music will be less confounded than 
at present. . . . The art of landscape gardening will be dis- 
played in the Great City Park of Rochester of 1934, which 
will extend from East Rochester north to the Bay and Lake 
Ontario, with its Grand Boulevards. There must be an ob- 
jective point for the pleasure-seeker. The Lake and the Bay 
will furnish this. The beautiful water scenery, the drives, 
the accessibility, render this the most desirable section of 
the city for a Grand City Park. The Boulevard will extend 
north on Culver Street to the Bay, and thence on the Lake 
front to the Genesee River, thence south on the river bank 
to Norton Street, thence east to a point on a line with 
Union Street, entering East Main at Union. The grounds 
will be laid out in streets and parks, and there will be found 
the future residences of our wealthy citizens." 

"The role of the prophet," says G. T. Lanigan, of the 
" Post-Express," " is a perilous one, when the period of 
fulfillment is set at such a distant date, and the object 
of the prediction is journalism. Rochester in 1934 should 
be a city of nearly 250,000 souls. It will have, in all prob- 
ability, seven important daily papers, two of them German. 
At least one of the English journals will be published inces- 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER. 333 

santly — i. c. morning, noon, and evening of every day in 
the year. Most of them will be penny papers, but at least 
one, and probably two, will be of higher price, for long be- 
fore half a century has elapsed newspapers will be divided 
into two classes: popular journals devoted mainly to news, 
and especially local news ; and periodicals something akin to 
the ' Pall Mall Gazette,' and encroaching greatly upon the 
field now occupied by the weeklies, and the literary and 
scientific press. At least two of the Rochester dailies of 
1934 will be devoted to the interests of Labor : one of these 
will certainly be conducted on the cooperative principle. 
There will be, of course, Sunday papers and minor journals 
of the evanescent sort, but the big dailies will have practi- 
cally occupied the important and profitable fields. Roch- 
ester will have at least one great agricultural journal, and 
one widely-circulated literary weekly, of the 'Ledger' type, 
but of higher class. It is not likely to have any magazines 
of national importance, but this lack will be atoned for by 
the existence of three or four influential weeklies, devoted 
to religion, temperance, and social reform." 

This from the Watch Tower of the Warner Observa- 
tory : — 

" The condition of science in 1934 belongs to the region 
of speculation rather than to that of philosophical induction. 
... I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, yet I 
have no hesitancy in predicting (judging wholly from the 
past), that before Rochester's Centennial is celebrated, the 
telescopes we now call mammoths will be considered mere 
toys, and that Lord Rosse's 6-foot reflector, and the 3-foot 
refractor of the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, 
Cal, will be increased to 8 feet for the former and to 5 feet 
for the latter, and that by improved mechanical appliances 
they will be as easily manipulated as are those now in use. 

"I predict, therefore, that the name and nature and 
source of the fuel which feeds the sun's mighty furnace, 
that lights and warms and fertilizes his family of circling 
planets, about which we now know nothing, will be at least 



334 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

partially ascertained. Science demands that he yield up his 
long-kept secrets regarding the cause of his spots, the na- 
ture of his chromosphere, and the extent, and use of his 
glorious corona ; and I predict that, to a considerable extent, 
her demands will be gratified, and that it will be proven 
that the sun is a great electric light, and the source of all 
the electric and magnetic effects we observe, such as light- 
ning, the aurora borealis, and the electric storms that occa- 
sionally pass through the earth or its atmosphere, or both. 

" With the great telescopes of the future more satellites 
will be discovered to Mars, three more to Saturn, and a few 
more to both Uranus and Neptune. The boundaries of the 
planetary system will be enlarged by the discovery of an- 
other planet beyond the now frontier planet Neptune. 

" The rotation period of Uranus will be ascertained, and 
the question of the multiple division of Saturn's outer ring 
will be settledo 

"The noblest problem in astronomy — the determination 
of the distance which separates us from the brighter stars 
— will yield to man's all-conquering energy, and the mighty 
chasm be bridged. 

" These are only a few of the many laurels which shall 
form the chaplet of Astronomy a. d. 1934. 

" Lew^is Swift. 

" Rochester, N. Y., April 28, 1S84." 

Henry E. Rochester, whose first acquaintance with the 
Genesee River dates back to 18 15, and who has made a 
study of its floods, is our prophet as to its conduct in the 
future. He says : — 

"The year 1884 will long be remembered as a year of 
extraordinary and unprecedent floods in our northern rivers. 
. . . The clearing off of our forests, the ditching of the low 
lands and swamps, cause a rapid flow of the water into the 
rivers. In the early years of the settlement of the country 
the rise and fall of the river floods embraced a period of 
from four to six weeks. Under the changed condition of 
the country, the same volume of water is now carried off in 



WHAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER. 335 

about ten days, or, at most, two weeks. . . . The Genesee 
Valley and the Genesee River give illustration of this. 
Within the memory of the writer, the Genesee afforded, 
during the dryest season of the year, an abundant supply of 
water, more than enough for the requirements of the hy- 
draulic machinery in Rochester. Now it is far from doing 
so. The flood of 1865 had a cause in the obstruction of the 
course of the water by the railroad embankment across the 
flats at Avon, piling up the water for a long distance above, 
and then, by a sudden giving way of such obstruction, dis- 
charging upon the lower river a good-sized lake. This is 
not likely to occur again, but may not other circumstances 
produce the same results .'' The Genesee has its rise in 
Potter County, Pa., and drains Alleghany, Livingston, Mon- 
roe, and a considerable portion of Wyoming, Genesee, and 
Ontario counties. It is only a question of time, and that 
not far distant, when we are to be visited with a flood in 
the Genesee more disastrous than that of 1865. After that 
flood public attention was aroused to the necessity of adopt- 
ing measures to avert a like disaster. A law was passed, 
authorizing and enjoining the city authorities to prevent 
any further encroachments or obstructions that might dimin- 
ish the capacity of the channel of the river. Surveys and 
reports were made as to the proper and necessary measures 
to be taken to enlarge the capacity of the channel, but none 
of such projected work was ever carried out ; and, worse 
than that, the common council permitted the extension of 
the Main Street bridge piers upon which to erect a block 
of buildings on the south side of the bridge, in the face of 
the law and a judgment of the Supreme Court, on proceed- 
ings taken by Mayor Lutes, restraining by an injunction 
the projected extension of such piers. 

"Many flatter themselves that because we escaped a dis- 
astrous flood this last spring, from the passing off of the 
great body of snow, we need have no fear for the future. 
This is a delusion. The thaw of this season began on the 
31st day of January, and after continuing for a few days 
was checked by freezing, and so it continued until the ist 



336 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

of April, alternating between thawing and freezing for two 

months, affording all this time to dispose of the great body 

of snow and spring rains. Is this likely always to be the 

attending circumstances ? I fear not, and anticipate a 

more disastrous flood in the Genesee than we have had in 

the past. 

" Henry E. Rochester." 



A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL 337 



XX. 

A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL, 

1763, First oxen in the Genesee Valley captured by the 
Senecas of the British, when conveying stores from Fort 
Niagara to Fort Schlosser, above the Falls. Ninety-two sol- 
diers and teamsters were massacred ; the oxen were driven 
to the Genesee Flats. 

1789. First crop of buckwheat in the Genesee Country 
sown on Boughton Hill, Victor. This buckwheat was ground 
for Jared Boughton, at Ganson's Mill, in Avon. 

THRESHING. 

1790. "The early wheat crop was threshed upon a floor 
made of split bass-wood, and cleaned with an old fashioned 
corn fan, the rim of which was made from an oak-tree and 
the bottom from a pine board which had been a part of a 
sleigh-box." — Glimpse at the Pioneer Days of the Bough- 
tons of Victor. 

First lawyer admitted to practice in the Ontario County 
Court, then holding jurisdiction over this region. General 
Vincent Mathews. 

The first religious exercises (Protestant) in the Genesee 
Country were the reading of the burial service from the 
"Book of Common Prayer," by a physician, at the first 
funeral in Canandaigua, — that of Caleb Walker. 

1 79 1. First path -master west of Cayuga Lake, James 
Wadsworth, of Geneseo. 

1794. The first business letter from this locality was writ- 
ten by Christopher Dugan, a brother-in-law of Ebenezer 
Allan, and was addressed to Colonel Wilhamson, who had 



338 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

bought Allan's Mill of Samuel B. Ogden. It ran as fol- 
lows : — 

P\\LLS OF Genesee, Aug. 9, 1794. 

The mill erected by Ebenezer Allan, which, I am informed, you 
have purcliased, is in a sad situation, mucli out of repair, and un- 
less attention is paid to it, will soon take its voyage to the lake. 
I have resided here for several years, and kept watch and ward 
without fee or recompense, and am pleased to hear that it has 
fallen into the hands of a gentleman who is able to repair it, and 
whose character is such that I firmly believe he will not allow an 
old man to suffer without reward for his exertions. I wish to 
have you come or send some one to take care of the mill, as my 
situation is such as makes it necessary soon to remove. 

This Christopher Dugan, a British soldier, is not spoken 
of in complimentary terms by his contemporaries. His 
wife was said to be a woman of education and refinement, 
strangely devoted to her brother, and at one time governess 
in the family of Lord Stirling. 

The first disli of currants served in a saucer at Mrs. San- 
born's tea-party, in Canandaigua, — a thing much talked of 
at the time. 

1796. First paper published in Western New York, the 
" Bath Gazette and Genesee Advertiser." 

1797. " Our first school had for its first school-master a 
young man by the name of Micah Brooks. Of him we 
learned for the first time that the earth was round and 
turned upon its axis, etc. His illustration was after this 
fashion : He took an old hat without a crown, doubled in 
the old rim, marked, with chalk, a line round the middle for 
the equator and another for the ecliptic, and, holding it up, 
began the revolutions. A shout followed the droll but con- 
vincing exhibitition, but we learned what we never forgot. 
The name of General Micah Brooks became famous after- 
wards, but I always think of him twirling that old hat for a 
globe." — A Bloomficld Pioneer. 

1798. First crop on Rochester soil. Jeremiah Olm- 
stead's grain, sown to the south of the House of Refuge, on 
the site afterwards occupied by a brewery. 



A FEIV FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL. 339 

1799. First orchard planted west of the Genesee River. 
Shaeffer's, on the Allan Farm, Scottsville, Enos Boughton, 
of Victor, planted the first orchard west of Seneca Lake. 

1807. First mill in Frankford, Charles Harford's, after- 
wards the site of the Phoenix Mills, now Edge Tool Works 
of Mack & Co. 

First block-house on State Street, built by Charles Har- 
ford, near corner of Lisle Road. 

1 8 10. First East Side inn, that of Isaac W. Stone, South 
St. Paul, near Ely Street. 

181 1. First hotel at mouth of the river, built by Erastus 
Spaulding. He built the first vessel there, — the schooner 
Isabel, afterwards captured by the British. Lake View, on 
the Boulevard, was his country seat. 

First schooner built in Brighton, — and probably the 
last, — on the Roswell Hart farm, by Oliver Culver, who 
drew it to the bay with twenty- six yoke of oxen. 

1812-16. Forests cleared from North and Monroe 
streets, by Gideon Cobb. 

18 1 2. First blacksmith shop, James B. Carter's, site of 
present Elwood Block. 

First pilot at the Rapids, Castle Town, Zachariah Lewis. 

First instrumental church music, the horn that called the 
peoi^le to service. 

First picnic on Independence Day was attended by every 
man, woman, and child in the settlement who could reach 
the bough arbor, corner of Main and St. Paul streets, where 
they had a feast in common, each contributing a share. 
There was roast lamb, roast pig, such vegetables as could 
be had, and a bottle of whiskey. The party did not exceed 
twenty, including the travelers who were invited to join the 
celebration. 

First surgical operation in Rochester was performed by 
Dr. Hunt, on the dislocated ankle of a daughter of Hamlet 
Scrantom. "My father went to the landing, on horseback, 
for the doctor, who was full two hours in performing what 
was a successful operation." — E. Scrantom. 

First tailor, Jehiel Barnard. First Rochester-made coat 



340 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

was fashioned by Barnard, for Francis Brown, of a piece of 
" fulled cloth " made in Rome, New York, 

The first mail delivery established between Rochester 
and Canandaigua, a weekly mail ; the post-rider, usually a 
woman, one Mrs. Dunham, on horseback. 

First tea-party, Mrs. Isaac Stone's, in honor of Colonel 
and Mrs. Rochester and Master Nathaniel Rochester. 
Invited guests — Mr. and Mrs. Hamlet Scrantom, Miss 
Delia Scrantom. My readers will be glad to know that the 
guests departed at early candle-light, thus securing a safe 
passage across the unfinished bridge. The red plum pre- 
serve and crab-apple jelly served upon this occasion were 
something superior. 

About 1812. A first call. "Hearing a family had ar- 
rived some eleven miles distant, my mother resolved at once 
to call upon them. She went through the woods by marked 
trees, dined with our new neighbors, and was home in time 
to do her milking, having walked, in going and coming, 
only some twenty-two miles." — A Pioneers Story. 

1812-20. First merchant, Ira West. 

First store, Silas O. Smith's. 

First grocery keeper, Abraham Starks. t 

First cabinet maker, William Brewster. 

First chairmakers, R. Lester, H. S. Packard. 

First lawyers, E. Pomeroy, H. R. Bender, Moses Chapin. 

First settled minister. Comfort Williams, who preached 
first at the house of Enos Stone, afterwards in the school- 
house. 

P^irst doctors, O. E. Gibbs, Jonah Brown. 

First turning-lathe, Preston Smith's, driven by foot, State 
Street, where the boys went for tops. 

P'irst printing-office, Dauby and Sholden, near the site of 
the present "Democrat and Chronicle" office. Main Street. 

First auctioneer, Derick Sibley. 

First jail, North Fitzhugh Street. The present jail was 
built in 1830, 

18 1 3. First West Side inn. 

First public conveyance, owned and driven by Gideon 



A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL. 34 1 

Cobb, two yoke of oxen and a cart, making semi-weekly 
trips to the landing. 

The first school, taught by Miss Huldah M. Strong, is- 
ter to Mrs. Abelard Reynolds. About fifteen pupils, some 
living three or four miles distant. This school was on the 
site of the present Arcade. 

1814. Francis Brown gave Gideon Cobb a yoke of oxen 
for cutting out the timber and grubbing the stumps towards 
making a three rod road where State Street now is. 

The first school-house was built on the site of the pres- 
ent High School. Its first teacher, Aaron Skinner. 

181 5. First census, population 331. 

Samuel J. Andrews built a stone house on the corner of 
Main and St. Paul, the first structure, other than wood, in 
Rochester. 

First watchmaker and jeweler, Erastus Cook, at "Cook's 
Corners," corner Exchange and Buffalo. He offered the 
first piano for sale. 

The first stage between Rochester and Canandaigua. 

1 8 16. The first steamboat entered the Genesee, the On- 
tario, Captain Lusher. 

First bell west of the Genesee River, hung in the cotton 
mill on Brown's Race. 

First stage to Lewiston. "We were three days in reach- 
ing Lewiston, and our sleigh broke down three times by 
running foul of snags on the track." 

First weekly newspaper. The " Rochester Gazette." 

The first school in Frankford, on Piatt Street, taught by 
Moses King. 

Harvey Ely and John G. Bond set out sugar-maple and 
other trees on the west side of Washington Street, the first 
shade trees set out in Rochester. 

18 1 7. Johnson's Dam and Mill Race costing about 
twelve thousand dollars. 

First house west of Sophia Street built by John G. Bond 
on Washington Street, afterwards the residence of General 
Mathews. Called " out in the woods." 

Josiah Bissell, Jr., Harvey Ely, and Elisha Ely built the 



342 ROCHESTER : A STORY HISTORICAL. 

"Old Red Mill" on Aqueduct Street, the first mill after 
Allan's on the One Hundred Acre Tract. 

First fire company organized, — 26 members. 

First meeting-house built on Carroll, now State Street, 
west side, near Church Street of to-day. 

First 4th of July celebration. A long bough house was 
put up on the east bank of the river ; under this, on rough 
boards, a dinner-table. The ladies who served the generous 
feast were Mrs. Enos Stone, Mrs. Oliver Culver, Mrs. 
Moses Hall, Mrs. Isaac W. Stone, Mrs. Elisha Ely, I^Irs. 
Hamlet Scrantom, Mrs. Elisha Johnson, Mrs. Ira West, 
Mrs. Daniel Mack, and others. Elisha Johnson sat at one 
end of the table and Enos Stone at the other. The Rev. 
Comfort Williams said grace, and then the blasts in John- 
son's Race went off — one very heavy one being left for 
sundown. There were no bells to ring, no cannon, no fire- 
crackers. De Witt Clinton had dug the first shovelful of 
earth for the Erie Canal that morning at sunrise, and in 
the course of a week or so they would hear of it. 

First mill on East Side, built by William Atkinson. 
Timber cut from Chestnut and Clinton streets. This mill 
is still to be seen on South Water Street. 

1818. First burying -ground selected by commissioners 
Jno. Russell, Ely Miller, and Chauncey Crittenden, the 
south end of Mount Hope, on the opposite side of the road 
near the Quaker graveyard. The three commissioners were 
buried there. 

1 8 19. First survey of route for canal. 

First printing-press, an old Ramage press. Brought 
from the far east on a wagon. Passing through Oneida 
Castle, discovery was made that the bottom of the wagon 
was out, the type boxes and the type gone. After long de- 
lay found the Indians had picked up the boxes ; thought 
they contained coin ; opened them in secret council : " No 
good money, whoop ! " with supreme disgust and disap- 
pointment. Type finally restored to owners and brought 
to Rochester with the press. Difficulty in getting a printer 
who could set them up. Found one at last, painting a 



A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL. 343 

house. The printing-office was hardly in operation when a 
fire destroyed the most of the type and the contents of the 
building as well.^ 

Cleveland's Mill, east side Great Falls. 

1820. First United States District Court held in Roch- 
ester, Judge Roger Skinner, presiding. 

1 82 1. First canal boat left the village. 

First County Court held in the attic of Ensworth's Tav- 
ern. 

First brick building in Rochester, South Fitzhugh Street, 
built by Charles J. Hill, afterwards the residence of Wm. 
Alhng. 

First insurance office, L. A. Ward. 

First patent. Dr. Vought's Pills. 

1822. First Court-House built of stone quarried on the 
spot, on a lot given to the city by Rochester, Carroll, and 
Fitzhugh, for the county buildings. The corner-stone of the 
present court-house was laid on the same site June 20, 1850. 

First Hght-house at Charlotte. 

Oliver Culver built, in Brighton, the first packet boat in 
this section — the fourth built on the Erie Canal. 

First ordinance for a sidewalk, to reach from Pitkin's 
Store, 14 Main Street, to the Mansion House, now corner 
Market and State. 

1823. First Cattle Show and Fair in Monroe County. 
James Sperry, President; Jacob Gould, Corresponding Sec- 
retary ; S. P. Allcott, Treasurer. 

First meeting nominating John Ouincy Adams for Presi- 
dent was held in Rochester. The "Rochester Telegraph" 
the first paper that placed his name under its editorial head 
as candidate for the presidency. 

1824. Rochester the only place out of the city of New 
York favored with a bank charter by the state legislature. 
The charter for "The Bank of Rochester" was, according 
to Thurlow Weed, obtained upon its merits alone. 

1825. Tomatoes as a vegetable were first grown in Roch- 
ester. Mr. Tousey, a Virginian, who spent his summers 
here, brought tomato seed with him, raised them for his 



344 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

own table at Christopher's Tavern, and invited a party of 
gentlemen to partake of them. His guests were by no 
means pleased with the new dish. Thurlow Weed, one of 
the party, introduced tomatoes to Albanians in 1830. 

1826. First editor first daily newspaper between the 
Hudson and the Pacific Ocean, Henry O'Reilly, of the 
" Rochester Advertiser." 

1827. First Directory. 
1829. Eagle Tavern built. 

1829-30. First Seed House in Rochester established by 
William A. Reynolds. Green -house and gardens at the 
corner of Sophia and Buffalo streets. This seed-house was 
succeeded by Ellwanger & Barry's nurseries — said to be 
the largest in the world. 

1833. First Memorial presented to the Legislature and 
the Canal Board, in favor of enlarging and improving the 
Erie Canal, presented by Henry O'Reilly, Chairman of the 
Executive Committee of Rochester on Canal Affairs. 

1835. Building of the big Crescent Mill on South Water 
Street, by Thomas Emerson and Jacob Graves. Still 
standing. 

1837, May nth. First railroad excursion on Tonawanda 
Railroad. Reached Churchville in forty minutes. The pas- 
senger cars were about fifteen feet long, two cross seats at 
each end, an upper story in the centre for passengers, the 
space underneath for luggage, each car containing about 
twenty-four passengers. 

First murder in the corporation of the City of Rochester. 
William Lyman murdered by Octavius Barren. 

First locomotives on railroad between Rochester and 
Batavia. 

1838. First local history west of the Hudson. O'Reilly's 
" Sketches of Rochester." 

First execution, Octavius Barren, in the Monroe County 
jail, for the murder of William Lyman. 

August 18. First burial in Mount Hope. 

1840. First car load of freight. Auburn and Rochester 
Railroad. Mutton tallow loaded at Victor for Rochester. 



A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL. 345 

First trains left Rochester for Auburn September loth. 
First baggage-man Heman Miller. 

First Rochester and Auburn Railroad Depot built. First 
depot-master, John Sholtus. First ticket agent, John B. 
Robertson. The second depot, recently demolished, was 
built by C. A. Jones in 1852. 

September 8th. First time-table of the Rochester and 
Auburn Railroad published. 

Organization of first Society of Odd Fellows in the State 
outside of New York city. 

1 84 1. First Free Schools organized under the present 
system of School Commissioners. 

By the original charter the mayor, aldermen, and assist- 
ants were commissioners. Until 1839 they had not per- 
formed any duties as such except in appointing inspectors. 
The common schools were under the old district system, 
three trustees to a district. Apparently the aldermen failed 
to discover their responsibility. In August, 1839, George 
Arnold, Alderman for the Second Ward, made a thorough 
examination of the schools, and learned that District No. 6 
was drawing state money for 900 children between the ages 
of 5 and 15, and that only about 160 children were receiv- 
ing instruction. The school-house on Brown Square had 
two rooms capable of seating about 75 pupils each. Nelson 
Kine taught on the lower floor. Miss Cornelia Parsons (Mrs. 
Latham Gardner) on the upper. She was the first to in- 
troduce singing and music in the public schools, — a happy 
innovation at the time. Mr. Arnold's explorations in the 
Second Ward discovered three private schools : Mrs. Hotch- 
kiss taught 30 scholars in her home on Jones Street ; Mrs. 
Chichester, about 40 over a grocery on the corner of Brown 
and Lyell streets ; and Miss Cornell was doing the best she 
could for education in a small stuffy room in an old house 
on State Street, in which her 30 pupils were crowded. The 
streets were full of truants, and very poor children were 
particularly left out in the cold. Mr. Arnold's report of his 
investigations in the Second Ward made no little commo- 
tion at the time ; and his vigorous recommendation that 



346 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL, 

there be a separation between educational and municipal 
affairs, that a special board of education be appointed, and 
that the schools should be made free and supported by gen- 
eral tax, was heartily approved and finally accepted. The 
carrying out of the measure demanded an amendment of 
the city charter. The new system was adopted, and the 
Free Schools opened under the present plan June, 1841. 
Therefore it is not amiss to call George Arnold the Father 
of our Public Schools. 

1844 or 1845. First telegraph office opened in the base- 
ment of Congress Hall. 

1845. First novel by a Rochester author: "The Mys- 
teries of Rochester," by John C. Chumasero. William 
Beach, Publisher. 

1846. First coal — a small quantity — brought to Roch- 
ester by Jonathan Child, for furnaces and foundries. The 
following year N. T. Rochester & Co. brought on a larger 
amount, and dealt in the same for several years. The accu- 
mulation of the breakage of this large coal was firsi used 
by the members of the firm in their own households. In 
185 1, Roswell Hart first introduced coal for domestic use, 
furnishing stoves and lighting the fires for his customers, 
who were slow to adopt the improvement. 

1848. Mysterious noises first heard in the house of the 
Fox Family living on Troup Street. 

August 2d, the first Woman's Rights Convention, and 
the second in the State, was held in the Unitarian Church, 
Rochester. Amy Post, Sarah C. Owens, and Mary H. Hal- 
lowell were the Committee of Arrangements. OfTficers for 
the convention : Abigail Bush, President ; Laura Murray, 
Vice President ; Elizabeth McClintock, Sarah Hallowell, 
and Catherine A. F. Stebbins, Secretaries. Mrs. Lucretia 
Mott, Mrs. Stanton, and Mrs. McClintock stoutly opposed 
the "hazardous experiment" of having a woman act as pres- 
ident. Among the gentlemen taking part in this conven- 
tion were Frederick Douglass, William C. Nell, William C. 
Bloss. Letters were received from Gerrit Smith and Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison. This convention was one of the first 



A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL. 347 

and strongest inspirations of the Woman's Rights move- 
ment. 

1849. House of Refuge completed. 
Streets first hghted with gas. 

1850, October 8th. Organization of the Buffalo and Roch- 
ester Railroad Company. 

1 85 I. The Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Com- 
pany was organized. James S. Wadsworth, President ; 
Freeman Clarke, Secretary and Treasurer. The road was 
opened to Avon in 1854. 

1852, May 3d. The Rochester and Charlotte Railroad 
Company was organized. Road completed, 1853. 

1854. First report of Porter Farley, D. M. Dewey, A. J. 
Brackett, Committee on a Free Academy. 

i860. The first Wide Awake Company in the State of 
New York, with uniform, cape, cap, and torch, was organ- 
ized in Rochester for the first Lincoln campaign. Mr. 
George C. Buell, Henry Harrison, and D. M. Dewey con- 
tributed and became responsible for one hundred outfits. 
The first parade of the Wide Awakes, S. W. Updike, Cap- 
tain, was in celebration of the announcement of the nom- 
ination of Lincoln at Chicago. After this. Wide Awake 
companies were organized throughout the State, and with- 
in ninety days 20,000 Wide Awakes paraded in New York 
city. 

Consolidation of the New York, Albany, and Buffalo Tel- 
egraph Companies with the Western Union, an organization 
having its origin in Henry O'Reilly's first section of tele- 
graph range, and composed largely of Rochester capitalists. 
Upon its first Board of Directors were Hiram Sibley, B. R. 
McAlpine, Vice Presidents ; O. H. Palmer, Secretary and 
Treasurer ; R. Hart Rochester, Assistant Treasurer ; D. A. 
Watson, James D. Reid, author of the " Telegraph in 
America." 

A considerable proportion of the Western Union stock- 
holders were residents of Rochester. We may fairly call 
the Western Union a Rochester institution. 

1 86 1. First regiment of volunteers from Western New 



348 ROCHESTER: A STORY IHSTORICAL. 

York, the 13th, left Rochester for the front, Colonel Isaac 
F. Quimby in command. The first company mustered in 
was raised and commanded by Captain Hiram Smith, then 
sheriff of Monroe County. 

i8b2. First news in Rochester of the defeat of the Mer- 
rimac by the Monitor. The Superintendent of the Western 
Union Telegraph Company in the State of New York, con- 
tributes the following : — 

♦'An anniversary of the Sunday -Schools of Rochester 
was announced for Sunday night, March 9, 1862. It was 
a time of deep public anxiety and alarm. The rebel ram 
Merrimac had appeared in Hampton Roads, and had com- 
menced her destructive mission. She had sunk, March 
3th, the Cumberland and Congress, and on Sunday morn- 
ing, March 9th, attacked the Minnesota. The Federal navy 
was in imminent danger. Just then a devastating fire oc- 
curred in Troy, which burned down the telegraph masts, 
which at that time bore the wires across the Hudson, and 
Western New York was isolated. James D. Reid was at 
that time superintendent of the state telegraphs. On Sat- 
urday he ordered a wire swung across the highlands of the 
Hudson River above West Point, to secure communication 
at the earliest moment, and arranged to be reported to at 
Rochester at each hour of Sunday until connection was se- 
cured. At 3 p. M. word was sent him that the wire was up, 
and at the same time communicated to him the arrival of 
the Monitor in Hampton Roads, and the particulars of her 
victory over the Merrimac. No one else in that anxious 
city knew of it. He was announced as one of the speak- 
ers at the anniversary in the evening. The other speakers 
were Dr. Peet of the First Presbyterian, and Dr. Coit of St. 
Peters, now both dead. As if in expectation of some great 
event the house was packed. The national dangers could 
be read on the solemn and anxious faces of every citizen. 
Passing up to the organist, Mr. Reid told him to keep him- 
self ready for a signal from him during his address. Dr. 
Peet and Dr. Coit had delivered eloquent addresses. It was 
now Mr. Reid's turn. In vain he tried to postpone the an- 



A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL. 349 

noun cement which was to make the nation laugh with joy. 
Taking from his pocket the despatch, he had scarcely 
finished reading it when a small boy in the gallery shouted, 
in a shrill voice, ' Hurrah ! ' Instantly a shout of general 
joy arose. The organist, with all the stops out, started the 
national hymn, 'My country, 't is of thee,' which was sung 
amid almost transporting fervor, and at a late hour the peo- 
ple separated with the feeling that a great danger was 
passed." 

1863. The first Union League in the State of New York 
was organized in Rochester, and made the pattern for simi- 
lar societies. Charter members of this first Union League : 
D. M. Dewey, John C. Chumasero, W. V. K. Lansing, 
Henry L. Achilles, George Shelton, Wm. S. Little, George 
T. Parker. 

1865. D. W. Powers began building Powers Block. The 
old Eagle Tavern disappeared. 

1872. First voting of Rochester women at the polls made 
by Susan B. Anthony and others in the Eighth Ward. The 
following women voted with her : Mrs. Hannah Anthony 
Mosher, Mrs. Mary S. Hibbard, Mrs. Nancy M. Chapman, 
Mrs. Jane M. Cogswell, Mrs. Martha N. French, Mrs. Mar- 
garet Leyden, Mrs. Lottie Bolles Anthony, Mrs. Hannah 
Chatfield, Mrs. Susan M. Hough, Mrs. Sarah Truesdale, 
Mrs. Mary Pulver, Mrs. Rhoda De Garmo, Mrs. Guelma 
Anthony McLean, Miss Mary S. Anthony, Miss Ellen T. 
Baker. The following women registered but were not al- 
lowed to vote : Mrs. Amy Post, Mrs. Mary Fish Curtis, 
Mrs. Dr. Dutton, Mrs. Charlotte Wilbur Griffin, Mrs. Dr. 
Wheeler, Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Lathrop. These women offered 
their votes to the inspectors of election, claiming the right 
to vote for a president and vice president, and members of 
Congress, as among the privileges and immunities secured 
to them as citizens by the Fourteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States. 

The inspectors of the Eighth Ward, Beverly W. Jones, 
William B. Hall, and Edwin T. Marsh, by a majority, de- 
cided in favor of receiving the offered votes, against the 



350 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

dissent of Hall, and they were received and deposited in 
the ballot box. For this act, the women, fourteen in num- 
ber, were arrested and held to bail, and indictments were 
found against them severally, under the 19th section of 
the Act of Congress of May 30, 1870 (16 St. at L. 144), 
charging them with the offense of " knowingly voting with- 
out having a lawful right to vote." The three inspect- 
ors were also arrested, but only two of them Avere held to 
bail. Hall having been discharged by the commissioner on 
whose warrant they were arrested. All three, however, 
were jointly indicted under the same statute — for having 
"knowingly and willfully received the votes of persons not 
entitled to vote." 

Of the women voters, the case of Miss Anthony alone 
was brought to trial, a nolle prosequi having been entered 
upon the other indictments. , . . 

The court held that the defendant had no right to vote; 
that good faith constituted no defense ; that there was 
nothing in the case for the jury to decide, and directed them 
to find a verdict of guilty, — refusing to submit, at the re- 
quest of the defendant's counsel, any question to the jury, 
or to allow the clerk to ask the jurors, severally, whether 
they assented to the verdict which the court had directed 
to be entered. The verdict of guilty was entered by the 
clerk, as directed by the court, without any express assent 
or dissent on the part of the jury. A fine of $100 and 
costs was imposed upon the defendant. 

This case was tried in the United States Circuit Court, 
Northern District of New York, The United States vs. 
Susan B. Anthony. 

Hon. Ward Hunt, presiding. 

Appearances : For the United States, Hon. Richard 
Crowley, U. S. District Attorney. 

For the defendant, Hon. Henry R. Selden, John Van 
Voorhis, Esq. 

Tried at Canandaigua, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 
17th and 1 8th, 1873 

Upon receiving the sentence of the court Miss Anthony 
(the prisoner) said : — 



A FEW FIRST THINGS: SCRAP-BASKET HISTORICAL. 35 I 

" May it please your honor, I shall never pay a dollar of 
your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I possess is a 
^10,000 debt, incurred by publishing my paper — 'The 
Revolution ' — four years ago, the sole object of which was 
to educate all women to do precisely as I have done, — rebel 
against your man-made, unjust, unconstitutional forms of 
law, that tax, fine, imprison and hang women, while they 
deny them the right of representation in the government ; 
and I shall work on with might and main to pay every dol- 
lar of that honest debt, but not a penny shall go to this 
unjust claim. And I shall earnestly and persistently con- 
tinue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the 
old revolutionary maxim, that ' Resistance to tyranny is 
obedience to God.' " 

Judge Hunt : " Madam, the court will not order you com- 
mitted until the fine is paid." 

The fine was finally remitted. 

The decision of Justice Hunt was severely criticised. 
" He had as much right to order me hanged upon the near- 
est tree," Judge Selden is reported to have said, "as to take 
the case from the jury and render the decision he did." 
Several of the jury declared they should never have agreed 
to a verdict of guilty. 

The three inspectors were each fined $25 and costs. In 
default of payment they were thrown into jail, where the 
best of dinners were furnished them by the fourteen women 
voters of the Eighth Ward. " I would not pay, if I were 
they," wrote B. F. Butler to Miss Anthony, "but allow any 
process to be served. I have no doubt the President will 
remit the fine if they are pressed too hard," which Presi- 
dent Grant did in due season, and so ended this assertion 
of Rochester women of their right to the ballot. 

1875. Present City Hall completed and turned over to 
the Mayor by the Commissioners, C. J. Hayden, Jacob 
Howe, George C. Buell, L. Farrar, D. W. Powers (absent 
in Europe). Corner-stone laid May 28, 1873. 

1876, February 4th. Hemlock Lake Water first supplied 
to the city. 



352 ROCHESTER: A STORY HISTORICAL. 

Lake Ontario Railroad from Oswego to Lewiston com- 
pleted. 

State Line Railroad completed. 

1877. First telephone used by Water Works Department 
from city to Hemlock Lake (thirty miles), the longest tele- 
phone wire then in use in the world. 

1879. Telephone Exchange. First used by E. Ocum- 
paugh ; now over 700 in use. 

1880, February ist. The first Land League in America 
was organized in Rochester, N. Y. : William Purcell, Presi- 
dent ; Patrick Cox, Treasurer ; Patrick Mahon, Secretary. 

1882. First electric light. P^irst used in stores. The 
dry goods house of A. S. Mann, on State Street, was among 
the very first to adopt the same. 

PLATE GLASS. 

The first plate-glass, narrow plates, was brought to Roch- 
ester about 1840, by Abelard Reynolds, and placed around 
the curving entrance of the Arcade. About 1852, what 
was considered a marvelously large plate was placed in the 
show window of C. F. True's dry goods store (the present 
site of Burke, Fitz Simmons, Hone & Co.) ; and the story 
was, that when this, then considered immense, plate was 
in Paris, it was seen by Louis Philippe, who, upon learning 
that it was destined for Rochester, New York, exclaimed 
incredulously : " Is it possible that mud-hole is sending for 
such a plate of glass as that.''" recalling the discomforts of 
his visit to the Genesee Falls only fifty-five years before.^ 

1 See p. 39. 



APPENDIX A. 



A LETTER DESCRIBING THE VISIT OF LA FAYETTE TO ROCHESTER. 

The following letter, written by a son of our pioneer citizen, 
Matthew Brown, was furnished too late for insertion in its proper 
place : — 

Rochester, Jime lo, 1S25. 

The long agony is over ! La Fayette passed through here on 

Tuesday, and as your friends, my dear J , were all of them 

more or less concerned in the affair, I shall just go to work and 
give you the particulars. On Friday last, we were informed that 
in consequence of the misfortune of the General in losing his 
baggage on the steamboat Mechanic, which was sunk on the 
Ohio, he had changed his route to Boston (where he was to be on 
the 17th inst. to assist in laying the Bunker Hill Monument), and 
that he would come by way of the villages of Buffalo and Lock- 
port and down the canal to Albany. The fact that he was posi- 
tively to come this way was communicated to us on Friday after- 
noon, and the committees of arrangements appointed a delegation 
of twelve or fourteen gentlemen, who left here Saturday after- 
noon, to go to Lockport to meet the General, Our express, sent 
on Friday to meet him at Buffalo, returned on Monday morning, 
informing us that he would be here on Tuesday, at eleven o'clock 
A. M. We then ordered three companies of rifle, one of artillery, 
one of dragoons, and two of infantry, to be on parade at this 
place at seven o'clock Tuesday morning. But I will not attempt 
to give you a complete miUtary description of the whole matter. 
On Tuesday morn at six o'clock eleven crowded boats started 
for Kings, about six miles west from here, to meet the expected 
guest ; among the ladies on board were C. and M. S., under the 
protection of Mrs. A. At eleven La Fayette arrived, and was re- 
ceived on a platform erected over the Aqueduct for that purpose. 
An address was delivered by Judge Rochester, to v/hich the Gen- 

23 



354 APPENDIX. 

eral responded ; he was then escorted on board a boat and taken 
to the Eastern Basin, on the east side of the river ; the military 
was paraded on the top of the bank on the east side of the canal, 
the right of the column directly in front of the Aqueduct. He 
was there introduced to the military (he being on board the boat 
and they upon the top of the bank) ; we raised our hats, being the 
highest possible honor, according to military usage, that soldiers 
can bestow. During this introduction the corps of artillery 
saluted him with twenty-four guns. He then passed down, and, 
landing, was taken into an open carriage that I had procured 
from Mr. Gurnsey, at Pittsford. Colonel Rochester sat beside 
him. He then reviewed the troops, we saluted him, and he passed 
on to the Falls, the column counter-marching so as to bring him 
in the rear ; we marched across the old bridge and down Mill 
Street, through Carroll up to Buffalo Street, where the military 
halted and presented arms. He alighted at Hoard's where the 
revolutionary soldiers were introduced to him, then rode to Chris- 
topher's, and dined. At dinner he requested that the officers 
commanding the light troops might be sent for. Colonel Riley 
and myself went in their behalf, and were appointed to attend 
him to Mendon. He halted in front of my corps and gave them 
a short address. They did indeed appear elegantly. Riley and I 
attended him to Mendon, took him from the carriage, introduced 
him, etc. I never was more gratified with any day's duty in my 
life. Father received from him a letter from Canandaigua, in- 
closing his reply to the address upon the Aqueduct. — Extract 
f 7-07)1 a Letter 7V7-itte?i by B. H, B}\nv7i. 

Copy of the first Dociimefit kiioum to be /;/ existe/ice relati7ig to the 
07ie Himdred Acre Tract. 

The original paper was found by O. Turner, author of the 
" Pioneer History of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase," and the 
^' Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase," when gathering ma- 
terial for his work, among a quantity of papers, etc., in the garret 
of the old house that had been occupied by Joseph Brandt. Mr. 
Turner gave the deed to Mr. D. M. Dewey, and he, deciding that 
it should be preserved as a valuable public document, framed and 
presented it to the Rochester Athenx'um. In the changes and 
chances of that venerable institution it was at one time reported 
as lost. Fortunately Henry O'Reilly made a copy of the paper 
at the time of its presentation to the Athenaeum, and through his 



APPENDIX. 355 

kindness I am enabled to present the same to my readers. The 
fact that the orthography of E. Allan, in his signature, does not 
agree with that adopted by Turner and other historians, is ex- 
plained in many ways, as Turner took pains to ascertain that the 
correct spelling of the name was Allan. 

[copy.J 

Original Deed of the One Hundred Acre Tract, on which the 
first plat of Rochester was laid out. 

Articles of agreement made this 21st day of March in the year 
of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, between 
Ebenezer Allin and Benjamin Barton, witnesseth, that for and in 
consideration of Five Hundred Pounds, New York currency, re- 
ceived by the said Ebenezer Allin of Benjamin Barton, the said 
Ebenezer Allin doth sell all that tract of land, containing one 
hundred acres, lying on the west side of the Genesee River, in the 
County of Ontario, State of New York, Bounded east on the 
Geneseo (?) River, so as to take in the mills lately built by the 
said Allin : from thence to run northerly from said mills, sixty- 
three rods, also southerly of said mills sixty-three rods, from 
thence running westerly so as to make one hundred acres strict 
measure : and the said Ebenezer Allin doth hereby empower the 
said Benjamin Barton to apply to the Honor' Oliver Phelps 
and Nathaniel Gorham, or either of them, for a good and suffi- 
cient deed of conveyance, to be by them or either of them exe- 
cuted to the said Benjamin Barton, his heirs or assignees, for 
said tract of land : and the said Ebenezer Allin doth hereby re- 
quest and empower the said Oliver Phelps or Nathaniel Gorham 
to seal, execute, and deliver such deed to the said Benjamin Bar- 
ton, his heirs or assigns : and the said Ebenezer Allin doth hereby 
exonerate and discharge the said Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel 
Gorham, in consequence of their executing the deed, from all and 
every agreement or instrument which might or may have existed 
respecting the conveyance of said tract of land from them, the 
said Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham or either of them, to 
the said Ebenezer Allin : in witness whereof, the said Ebenezer 
Allin hath hereunto set his hand and seal, the day and year above 
written. (Signed) E. Allin. [seal.] 

Sealed and delivered in the presence of 

(Signed) Gertrude G. Ogden, 
John Farlowe. 



356 APPENDIX. 

Rec'd of Benjamin Barton a deed for AUin's Mills on the 

Genesee River ; in settling therefor, I am to settle the bond for 

;^3oo which he gave Ebenezer Allin, for which I was security. 

(Signed) Sam'l Ogden. 
Decemhf.r 24, 179S. 

On the back of the copy of the deed I find this note : " This is 
the foundation of Allin's title. John Barton, son of Benjamin, 
says that his father paid Allin $200 for this one hundred acres. 



APPENDIX B. 



STATISTICAL DEPARTMENT. 



PREPARED BY MR. J. M. WINSLOW. 



CITY GOVERNMENT. 

Mayor. Elected biennially. Salary $3,000. Office i City Hall. 
Office hours, 10 to 12 a. m. 

Following is a complete list of the names of the Mayors of the 
City from 1834 to the present time. 



Jonathan Child, 1834. 
Jacob Gould, 1835 and 1836. 
A. M. Schermerhorn, 1837, 
Elisha Johnson, 1838. 
Thomas H. Rochester, 1839. 
Saml G. Andrews, 1840. 
Elijah F. Smith, 1841. 
Charles J. Hill, 1842. 
Isaac Hills, 1843. 
John Allen, 1844. 
William Pitkin, 1845 and 1846. 
John B. Elwood, 1847. 
Joseph Field, 1848. 
Levi A. Ward, 1849. 
Samuel Richardson, 1850. 
Nicholas E. Paine, 185 1. 
Hamlin Stillwell, 1852. 
John Williams, 1853. 
Maltby Strong, 1854. 
Charles J. Hayden, 1855. 



Samuel G. Andrews, 1856. 

Rufus Keeler, 1857, 

Charles H. Clark, 1858. 

S. W. D. Moore, 1859. 

Hamlet D. Scrantom, i860. 

John C. Nash, 1861. 

Michael Filon, 1862. 

Nehemiah C. Bradstreet, 1863. 

James Brackett, 1864. 

Danl. D. T. Moore, 1865. 

S. W. D. Moore, 1866. 

Henry L. Fish, 1867 and 1868. 

Edward M. Smith, 1869, 

John Lutes, 1870. 

Charles W. Briggs, 187 1. 

A. Carter Wilder, 1872 and 1873. 

Geo. G. Clarkson, 1874 and 1875. 

Cornelius R. Parsons, 1876 to 

1884 ; reelected for two years, 

March 4, 1884. 



358 APPENDIX. 

Elijah F. Smith was the first Mayor elected by the people. All 
before him being appointed by the Common Council. Since 
1872, the Mayor has been elected for the term of two years. 
The Mayor was first paid a salary, in 185 1. The amount then, 
and until 1858, was $1,000. In 1858 it was $1,200; in 1859 
$1,590 ; in 1875 $2,500 ; in 1877 $2,200 ; in 1878 $2,400 ; in 1880 
$2,500; in 1881 $2,500; in 1882 $3,000; in 1883 $3,000. 

COMMON COUNCIL. 

The Aldermen of the different wards constitute the Common 
Council. At the present time there are sixteen aldermen, one 
for each ward. They are elected for two years, and in such man- 
ner that the terms of one half the whole number expire annually. 

Up to 1863 the Mayor presided at all meetings of Council, but 
having no vote. 

At a meeting of the Common Council, July 28, 1863, Aid. 
Plinny M. Bromley was chosen President of the Council, and this 
practice has been continued to the present time. For the last 
two years, ending March, 1884, Aid. Martin Barron has been 
President. 

The following named persons composed the first Common 
Council in 1834 : — 

First Ward. Lewis Brooks, John Jones, Assistant. 

Second Ward. Thomas Kempshall, Elijah F. Smith, Assistant. 

Third Ward. Frederick F. Backus, Jacob Thorn, Assistant. 

Fourth Ward. Ashbel W. Riley, Lansing B. Swan, Assistant. 

Fifth Ward. Jacob Graves, Henry Kennedy, Assistant. 

In 1837, the distinction between alderman and assistant alder- 
man was abolished. 

CITY OFFICERS. 

City Clerk. Office 20 City Hall. Appointed biennially by the 
Common Council. Salary $2,000. 

Messenger. Appointed annually by the Common Council. Sal- 
ary $1,200. One Assistant. Appointed by City Property Com- 
mittee. Salary $600. 

City Sumeyor. Appointed biennially by the Common Council. 
Salary $2,500. Six Assistants, with salaries ranging from $720 to 
$1,500. Appointed by the City Surveyor. 

City Treasurer. Elected biennially by the people. Salary 
$4,500. One Deputy. Salary $2,000. Five clerks, with salaries 
ranging from $540 to $1,200. Appointed by the City Treasurer. 



APPENDIX. 359 

City Attorfiey. Office ig City Hall. Salary $3,000. Appointed 
biennially by the Common Council. 

Fire Marshal. Salary $1,200. Appointed annually by the 
Common Council. 

Overseer of the Poor. Salary $1,700. Appointed biennially by 
the Common Council. Foicr Assistants. Salary $900 each. Ap- 
pointed by the Committee on Support and Relief of the Poor. 

One Sealer of Weights and Measures. Salary, fees. Appointed 
by the Common Council. 

Milk Inspector. Salary $800. Appointed by the Common 
Council. 

Watchman, City Hall. Salary $900. Appointed by the Com- 
mittee on City Property. 

Engineer, City Hall. Salary $900. Appointed as above. 

Janitor, Front Street Building. Salary $840. Appointed by 
Committe on City Property. 

assessors' department. 

Office 15 City Hall. 

The assessors, three in number, appointed by Common Council 
for the term of three years, in such manner that the term of one 
assessor expires annually. Salary $2,500, including clerk hire. 

POLICE DEPARTMENT. 

Police Station at City Hall. 

Three Commissioners. The Mayor, ex-officio. Appointed by the 
Common Council every four years. 

Police Justice. Salary $3,000 ; fixed by Common Council ; 
elected by the people every four years. 

Clerk of Commissioners, and of Police Court. Salary $1,500. Ap- 
pointed by the Police Commissioners. 

Chief of Police. Salary $1,560. Appointed by the Police Com- 
missioners. 

Captain. Appointed by Police Commissioners. 

Brevet Captai?t. Appointed by Police Commissioners. 

There are ninety policemen, including ten detectives, and six 
lieutenants, appointed by the Police Commissioners. About 
twenty are on duty during the day (two being mounted), and the 
remainder at night. Salary $75 per month, fixed by the Com- 



360 APPENDIX. 

missioners. Salary of detectives and lieutenants, $85 ; salary of 
mounted men, $105. 

CONSTABLES. 

One for each ward elected annually in March. 

MUNICIPAL COURT. 
Court Room 34 City Hall. 

Two yudgcs. Elected by the people for a term of six years. 
Salary $1,800. 

Clerk. Appointed by the Court. Salary $600. 

INSPECTORS OF ELECTION. 
For each Election District. 

The first two Inspectors in each ward, or district, are elected 
annually by the people ; a third is appointed by the Common 
Council. 

HEALTH DEPARTMENT. 

Chairman. The Mayor, ex-ofBcio. Clerk. City Clerk, ex-of- 
ficio. 

Six Cofumissioncrs. Appointed by the Common Council ; meet 
alternate Friday afternoons, on the Friday preceding the regular 
meetings of the Common Council, at the Mayor's office. 

Health Officer. Appointed by Commissioners. Salary $900. 

Messenger. Appointed by Commissioners. Salary $400. 

Stipt. and Clerk. Appointed by Commissioners. Salary $800. 

Six Inspectors. Appointed by Commissioners. Salary $600. 

Two Sewer Flushers. Appointed by Commissioners. Salary 
$600. 

Keeper., Hope Hospital. Appointed by Commissioners. Salary 
$700. 

PHYSICIANS. 

For East Side of River. Three physicians. 
For West Side of River. Three physicians. 
Appointed annually by Common Council. Salary $600. 

COMMISSIONERS OF EXCISE. 

Office 61 Front Street. 

Three Commissioners. Appointed by the Mayor for the term of 
three years. Salary $900. 



APPENDIX. 361 

^ PRINTING AND ADVERTISING. 

City Printers. Union and Advertiser Printing Co. Contract at 
$3,300 per annum. 

Rochester Printing Co. $2,250. 
Post Express Printing Co. $2,250. 
Rochester Herald Publishing Co. $1,000. 
German Printing and Publishing Co. $1,000. 
E. H. Makk $720. 

STREET LAMP DEPARTMENT. 

There are 2,514 gas lamps; of this number 1,466 are on the 
east side of the river, and are supplied by the Citizens Gas Com- 
pany and Municipal Gas Company; 1,048 are on the west side 
of the river, and are supplied with gas by the Rochester Gas Light 
Company. 

There are also 1,746 oil lamps, supplied with kerosene oil, 
lighted and cared for at the rate of $7.32, for each lamp per 
annum. 

There are also about 270 electric lights, owned by the Brush 
Electric Light Company, at a cost of 45 cents per light, per night. 

At a meeting held on the nth day of May, 1824, John W. 
Strong, one of the T'rustees, was appointed a Committee to pur- 
chase a barrel of oil, with which to light the lamps on the river 
bridge. 

EXECUTIVE BOARD. 
Office at City Hall. 

Elected by the people. Salary $2,500. 

Chairman. Byron Holley, chosen by the Board. The Board 
consists of three members elected for three years, in such manner 
that the term of one member expires annually. 

Clerk. Thomas J. Neville. Salary $1,800. 

Book-keeper. General Pay Clerk, Geo. B. Harris. Salary $1,700. 

Supf. of Streets. Gilbert H. Reynolds. Salary $1,800. 

Pay Clerk, Street Department. W. J. Steinhauser. Salary 
$1,100. 

Foreman. Joseph Friedel. Salary $3.50 per day. 

The Board has power to let all contracts made by the city, in 
pursuance of any ordinance, except such as are by law required 
to be made otherwise, and has oversight of the work and of pay- 



362 APPENDIX. 

ing for it. The Streets, Water Works, and Fire Department are 
under its care, ♦ 

WATER WORKS. 

Chief Engineer and Superintendent. Salary $3,000. 

Assistant Engineer. Salary $2,000. 

Draughtsman. Salary $782. 

Receiver. Salary $1,200. 

Six Clerks. Salaries ranging from $600 to $1,200. 

Foreman of Repairs. Salary $1,400. 

Engineer, Holly Works. Salary $1,500. 

Assistant Efigineer. Salary $1,200. 

The Water Works were begun July, 1873, and finished Febru- 
ary, 1876. 

Miles of iron pipe in Holly system in city, April, 1883, about 
9f ; miles of iron pipe in Hemlock system in city, 121. Total 
miles of distribution pipe in city, about 131. 

Miles from City Hall to Mount Hope Reservoir, about i^; to 
Rush Reservoir, about lof; to Hemlock Lake, about 29I. Eleva- 
tion of Mount Hope Reservoir above Aqueduct, about 125I feet. 
Capacity 24,278,101 gallons. Elevation of Rush Reservoir, 242I 
feet. Capacity 74,525,992 gallons. 

Elevation of Hemlock Lake above Aqueduct, 388 feet ; length 
of lake, 7 miles ; average width, | of a mile; depth, 40 to 100 feet. 

Number of hydrants in city, 1883, 1,129; number of drinking 
fountains for animals, 35. For citizens and others, i ; a unique 
affair, but not quite up to the " Probasco Bronze Fountain,'' in 
Cincinnati, costing nearly $200,000. 

Original cost of the Water Works, for which 30 year-bonds were 
issued, $3,182,000 ; additional cost in extending the works, and 
included in tax levies, $312,749. 

Number of takers of water, in 1877, 3,260; in 1878, 3,955 ; in 
1879, 6,037 ; in 1880, 7,395 ; in 1881, 8,343 ; in 1882, 9,843; in 
1883, 11,951, 

Income for the year ending March, 1883, $56,547.14. 

The first steps taken to supply our city with water were in 1838, 
when Elisha Johnson was Maj'or, who made a report to the Com- 
mon Council on that subject, — the plan being to take the water 
of the river to the high ground, near the Rapids, where a head of 
about 20 feet could be secured. 

The next movement for that purpose was in 1S52, by the late 
C. A. Jones, who had secured a charter from the Legislature, and 



APPENDIX. 363 

formed a company for the purpose contemplated. The plan of 
this company proposed to take the water from the " Honeoye 
Outlet." at a place called Smithtown. The aggregate cost of this 
plan for two millions of gallons daily, with twelve miles of dis- 
tributing pipe, was $594,595, but obstacles arose that could not 
well be overcome and the works were never commenced. 

In 1855, a new Water Works Company was organized under the 
charter surrendered by the former company. Charles J. Hayden, 
then Mayor, being president, and Alderman Winslow secretary, 
who, as chairman of a select committee on Water Works, had pre- 
viously submitted a lengthy report on the subject, including plans, 
and estimates of cost, for an abundant supply of water. 

The plan contemplated taking the water from Lake Ontario, a 
quarter of a mile northwest of the piers at the mouth of the river, 
where the water can nearly at all times be obtained in utmost 
purity. The water to be brought through cast iron pipes along 
the banks of the river to the foot of the Lower Falls, at Carthage, 
where it was proposed to raise it to the high ground, securing a 
head of at least seventy-five feet in the highest part of the city. 
The aggregate cost of this plan, with twenty miles of distributing 
pipe, being less than $600,000. 

In order to give the matter some character abroad, and so se- 
cure the ready sale of a part of the stock, the company sought to 
obtain from the city its bonds to the amount of $200,000, to be 
secured by a first mortgage on the works, when from $200,000 to 
$400,000 had been expended. This proposition raised great 
clamor and opposition on the part of some who could not see the 
difference between a small loan on absolute security and public 
debt, and who were content to drink the unwholesome water of 
limy and sulphurous wells, or the turbid river water that runs 
through our city, and so the whole undertaking was finally given 
up, and the charter surrendered to still another company, which 
the late Gen. Swan was chiefly prominent in forming, the plan 
being to bring water from Hemlock Lake, through a conduit of 
wooden pipes, which proved an utter failure. 

FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
Office and Hose Depot, City Buildings, 61 Front Street. 

Chief Efigincer. Salary $2,000. 
Assistant Engineer. Salary $1,200. 



364 APPENDIX. 

Assistant Engineer. Salary $600. 
Sttperifitcndent Hose Depot. Salary $840. 
Assistant Snperintefidcnt Hose Depot. Salary $720. 
Appointed annually. 

ENGINE COMPANIES. 

Steam Fire Engine Co. No. i, 36 Stone Street. 

Steam Fire PZngine Co. No. 2, corner Stillson and East Main 
streets. 

Steam Fire Engine Co. No. 3, Piatt, near State Street. 

Steam Fire Engine Co. No. 4, 21 South Ford Street. 

Empire Hook and Ladder Co. No. i, City Building, Front 
Street. 

Hook and Ladder Co. No. 2, Stillson, near East Main Street. 

Alert Hose Co. No. i, Fitzhugh Street. 

Active Hose Co. No. 2, North St. Paul Street. 

Protective Sack and Bucket Co., 39 Fitzhugh Street. 

Wheel Babcock Extinguishing Co., 61 Front Street. 

Following are the names of persons who composed the first 
Fire Company, organized October 19, 18 17. 

Everard Peck. Gideon Cobb. Moses Chapin. 

Josiah Bissell, Jr. J. Safford. William Cobb. 

Roswell Hart. R. Darrow. Roswell Babbitt. 

Isaac Colvin. "William P. Sherman. Daniel Warren. 

Ebenezer Watts. Albert Backus. William Brewster. 

Daniel Mack. Jehiel Barnard. Ira West. 

Horace Bates. Hastings R. Bender. Charles J. Hill. 

In the records of the village in which the above names are en- 
tered that of Charles J. Hill is the last, and he was the last of that 
first Fire Engine Company, to pass from earth, as he did a few 
months ago. The first fireman killed in Rochester was Thomas 
M. Rathbun. He met his death by a falling chimney, at the 
burning of Peck's Paper Mill, South Water Street, which tlie 
writer witnessed. The first firemen granted exemption papers 
were Frederick Starr and Joseph Halsey. In 1834, Rochester 
was incorporated as a City, having a population of about 13,000. 
The Fire Department then consisted of six Engine Companies, 
one Hook and Ladder Company, and a Hose and Bucket Com- 
pany. In 1835, Colonel Thomas Meachem, of Sandy Creek, Os- 
wego County, tendered, as a gift to the city of Rochester, a mam- 



APPENDIX. 365 

moth cheese, the product of his dairy. The amount realized by 
the sale of this cheese, and interest on the money deposited in 
bank, at the close of the year 1836, was $1,237.83. Engine No. i 
paid the largest amount for one ounce of the cheese. No. 6 paid 
the next largest amount. The avails from the sale of the cheese 
constitute a charitable fund for the relief of the widows and 
orphans of firemen, and the disabled firemen of the city of Roch- 
ester, and is known as the " Meachem Fund." 

FIRE ALARM TELEGRAPH. 

Superi7itende7it. Salary $1,700. 

Lineman. Salary $624. 

The telegraph was constructed at a cost of $12,000, and was 
accepted by the city, March, 1869. Alarm is given instantly 
from the alarm boxes to the office of the Fire Department, to 
each of the engine houses, to the City Hall, to the Water Works 
Building, to Mount Hope Reservoir, and to the residence of the 
Chief Engineer, the number of taps indicating the box from 
which the alarm is given. The taps can also be heard at all of 
the other boxes. Keys to the boxes are in the hands of the 
Police and the nearest responsible resident. 



^66 APPENDIX. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

BOARD OF EDUCATION. 
Office ami Library, Free Academy Building, Fitzhugh Street. 

There is one School Commissioner for each ward, elected in 
such manner that the terms of one half the whole number expire 
annually. 

Superintendent and Librarian. Salary $i,8oo. 

Assistant Librarian. Salary $600. 

Clerk. Salary $420. 

Messenger of the Board. Salary $300. 

Etirjineer and ^atiitor, Free Academy. Salary $900. 

School Policeman. Salary $800. 

School Carpenter. Salary $900. 

SALARIES OF TEACHERS. 

Grammar and Intermediate, male Principals. Salary $1,350. 
Female Principals. Salary $500 to $700. 

NUMBER OF PUPILS AND TEACHERS. 

Number of pupils registered in public schools (not including 
asylums), 12,760. Average daily attendance, 9,058, Number of 
teachers, 288. 

ROCHESTER FREE ACADEMY. 

Fitzhugh Street, near West Main Street. 

Principal. Salary $1,850. 
Assistant Principal. Salary $1,550. 
Preceptress. Salary $1,000. 
Assistants. Salary $650 to $1,000. 
Teacher of Germa?i. Salary $1,500. 
Teacher of Natural Sciences . Salary $1,550. 
Number of pupils 379. 

Pupils. 

No. 2. Intermediate School, King Street . . . 332 

No. 3. Grammar School, Tremont Street . . • . 732 
No. 4. Grammar School, Francis Street .... 853 
No. 5. Grammar School, Jones Street .... 496 
No. 6. Grammar School, Lyell Avenue , . . .691 



APPENDIX. 



567 



No. 7. Grammar School, Lake Avenue 

No. 8. Grammar School, North St. Paul Street 

No. 9. Grammar School, .^t. Joseph Street . 

No. 10, Grammar School, North Clinton Street 

No. II. Intermediate School, Chestnut Street 

No. 12. Grammar School, Wadsworth Square . 

No. 13. Grammar School, Hickory Street 

No. 14. Grammar School, Scio Street 

No. 15. Grammar School, Monroe Avenue , 

No. 16. Intennediate School, North Street 

No. 17. Grammar School, Orange Street 

No. 18. Grammar School, North Avenue . 

No. 19. Intermediate School, Seward Street . 

No. 20. Intermediate School, Oakman Street . 

No. 21. Intermediate School, Wackerman Street 

No. 22. Intermediate School, Norton Street 

No. 23. Intermediate School, Ely Place 

No. 24. Intermediate School, Meigs Street 

No. 25. Intermediate School, North Goodman Street 

No. 26. Intermediate School, Clifford Street 

No. 27. Intermediate School, Central Park . 

Rochester Orphan Asylum, Hubbell Park 

Industrial School, 76 Exchange Street . 

St. Patrick's Orphan Asylum, Frank Street 

St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, Franklin Street 

St. Mary's Orphan Boys Asylum, West Avenue 

Church Home Orphan Asylum, Mount Hope Avenue 



Pupils. 

• 99 
717 

243 

• 441 
624 

. 669 
508 

• 384 

. 888 
270 

• 479 

. 89 

73 

• 358 
125 

• 483 

27 

. 102 

213 

. 62 

73 
. 92 

37 



INSTITUTION FOR DEAF MUTES. 
263 N'orth Street. 

Incorporated February 4, 1876. Established by legislative 
enactment as a branch of the public school system of the State, 
under the control of the department of Public Instruction. An- 
nual meeting in April, at Monroe County Savings Bank. Annual 
exhibition in June. Number of pupils 136. 



368 



APPENDIX. 



CHURCHES. 



Names of Churches. 



1815 First Presbvterian 
1825 Brick 
1827 Third Presb. 
1836 Central Presb 
1853 St. Peter's Presb. 
1856 Calvary Presb. 
1S68 Westminster 
1872 Memorial Presb. 
1883 1 North Mission 

! 

1840 Ref. Presbyterian 
1848; United Presb. 



Location. 



Plymouth Ave. 
Fitzhugh cor. Allen 
E. Ave. cor. Meigs 
Sophia n. \V. Main 
Gibbs cor. Grove 
South Avenue 
West Avenue 
Hudson cor. Wilson 
Fulton A. c. Locust 



Denomina- 
tion. 



Presb. 
Presb. 
Presb. 
Presb. 
Presb. 
Presb. 
Presb. 
Presb. 
Presb. 



North St. Paul Presb. Ref. 

Allen n. Fitzhugh iP. United 



1817 St. Luke's Fitzhugh St. IProt. 

1827 St. Paul's North St. Paul St. Prot. 

1845 Trinity Jones Ave. c. Frank Prot. 

1855 Christ East Avenue Prot. 

1S69 Ch. Good Shep. jGrape .St. Prot. 

1869 Ch. of Epiphany : South Francis St. iProt. 

1876 Ch. St. James the| j 

j Greater Almira St. Prot. 

18791 St. Andrew's Averill Ave. Prot. 

1882 St. John's Hawthorne St. iProt. 

1st. Mark's Mis. I Bay St. Prot. 



Epis. 
Epis. 
Epis. 
Epis. 
Epis. 
Epis. 

Epis. 
Epis. 
Epis. 
Epis. 



18 18 First Baptist 
1834 .Second Baptist 
1 85 1 Ger. Baptist 
187 1 East Ave. Baptist 

1871 .Lake Ave. Mem. 

Baptist 

1872 Rapids Baptist 



1820 

1S37 
1837 
1849 
1S52 
1852 
1853 
1853 
1874 



First Meth. Epis. 
Asbury Meth. E. 
Zion 

Ger. Meth. E])is. 
North St. M. E. 
Frank St. M. E. 
CornhiU Meth. E. 
Alexander St.M.E. 
Hedding Mission 
Meth. Epis. 



Fitzhugh St. 
North "Ave. 
Andrews St. 
E. Ave. c. Anson P. 
Lake Ave. cor. Am- 
brose 
Genesee St. 

Fitzhugh St. 
East Main St. 
Favor St. 
North Ave. 
North St. 
Frank St. 
Edinburg St. 
Alexander St. 

North St. Paul 



1820! St. Patrick's 
thedral. 



Ca- 1 Piatt cor. Frank 



Baptist. 
Baptist. 
Baptist. 
Baptist. 

Baptist. 
Baptist. 

Meth. E. 
Meth. E. 
Meth. E. 
Meth. E. 
Meth. E. 
Meth. E. 
Meth. E. 
Meth. E. 

Meth. E. 



R. Cath. 



Ministers. 



Ch. E. Robinson, I). D. 
James B. Shaw, D. D. 
George Patton, 1). D. 
Theodore W. Hopkins. 
Herni. C. Riggs, 1). D. 
Edward Bristol. 
Corliss B. Gardner. 
Charles P. Coit. 
Peter Lindsay. 

John Graham. 

\. P. Sankey, D. D. 

Henrv Austice, D. D. 
Wm.'H. Piatt, D. D. 
W. W. Walsh. 
W. D'O. Doty, I). D. 
James Stoddard. 
Amos Skeele. 

James H. Dennis. 
A. S. Crapsev. 
J. A. Masse v^ D. D. 
Albert Wood. 

Charles J. Baldwin. 
S. W. Duncan, D. D. 
Peter Ritter. 
J. H. Pattison (supply). 

A. Judson Barrett. 

D. D. Babcock. 

Ch. AV. Gushing, D. D. 
R. C. Brownlee, D. D. 
N. E. Collins. 
John J. Messner. 

E. Lansing Newman. 
Geo. W. Coe. 

L. A. Stevens. 
J. T. Foote. 

I. H. Kellogg. 

f B. J. McQuaid, Bp. 
' of the Diocese. 
J J. F. O'lL-ire, Rect. 
j H. De Rcgge,Chanc. 
' D. Laurenzis. 
\ W. A. McDonald. 



APPENDIX. 
CHURCHES {continued). 



369 



c 

3 



Names of Churches. 


Location. 


Denomina- 
tion. 


Ministers. 


1835 


St. Joseph's (Ger.) 


Franklin St. 


R. Cath. 


Joseph Froelich. 


1842 


St. Mary's 


South n. Court St. 


R. Cath. 


John P. Stewart. 


1843 


St. Peter & Paul's 


East Maple St. 


R. Cath. 


John J. Gleeson. 


184S 


Our Lady of Vic- 










tory (French) 


Pleasant St. 


R. Cath. 


Francis H. vSincIair. 


1848 


Immac. Concept. 


Plymouth Ave. 


R. Cath. 


Alphonse A. Notaburt^ 


1854 


St. Bridget's 


Gorham St. 


R. Cath. 


Michael M. Meagher. 


1861 


St. Boniface 


Grand St. 


R. Cath. 


James O'Conner. 


1864 


Holy Family 


Jay St. 


R. Cath. 


Herman Reuker. 


1S66 


Holy Redeemer 


Hudson St. 


R. Cath. 


Leop. C. Oberholzer. 


1874 


St. Michael's 


N. Clinton n. Clif- 










ford 


R. Cath. 


Fridolin Pascalor. 


i860 


Christadelphians 


Palmer Bl. E. Main 


Christad. 


Vacant. 


i860 


Christadelphians 


62 East Main St. 


Christad. 


Vacant. 


1851 


Plymouth 


Plymouth Ave. 


Cong. Tri. 


Myron Adams. 


1841 


First Unitarian 


Temple St. 


Unitarian 


Newton M. Mann. 


1817 


Friends' Meeting 


Hubbell Park 


(Hicksite) 


Vacant. 


1828 


Friends' Meeting 


Alexander St. 


(Ortho.) 


Jacob D. Bell. 


1843 


Temple Berith 










Kodesh 


North St. Paul 


Jewish 


Max Landsberg. 


1870 


Aitz Raanon Ko- 










desh 


Franklin Park 


Jewish 


Max L. Moll. 


1879 


Beth Israel Ko- 










desh 


54 Chatham St. 


Jewish 


K. Barden. 


1S82 


Beni David Ko- 










desh 


5 Herman St. 


Jewish 


Moritz Weiss. 


1883 


Berith Oulom Ko- 










desh 


Clinton & Atwater 


Jewish 


Vacant. 


1834 


Ger. Luth. Zion's 


Grove St. 


Lutheran 


A. Ritcher. 


1869 


Ch. of the Reform. 


Grove near North 


Lutheran 


Chas. S. Kohler. 


1S74 


St. John's 


St. Joseph St. 


Lutheran 


John Muehlhaeuser. 


1878 


Ger. Evang. Luth. 


Helena St. 


Lutheran 


Charles N. Conrad. 


i860 


Free Methodist 


127 Alexander St. 


M. (Free) 


Wilson T. Hogg. 


1848 


First Reformed 


Oregon St. 


Ref. in Am. 


Peter De Bruyn. 


1852 


Evang. Ref. E. 


Hamilton Place 


Ref. U. S. 


Carl Gunlach. 


1877 


Ebenezer 


Chatham St. 


True 
Dutch Ref. 


Hermancz Temple. 


1867 


Advent Christian 


155 E. Main St. 


2d Advent 


Geo. W. Wright. 


1846 


First Universalist 


South Clinton 


Universal. 


Asa Saxe, D. D. 


1883 


Sec. Universalist 


Spencer St. 


Universal. 


L. B. Fisher. 



24 



370 APPENDIX. 

The whole number of churches or religious societies is 65. In 
1837 the number was only 20. The oldest church edifice is St. 
Luke's, erected in 1823 and 1824. The front and tower being of 
hewn stone from Auburn, cut by the prisoners. 

St. Paul's is the next oldest church building, erected in 1827 
and 1828. This church at first had a steeple 227 feet high, 
which was blown down just before it was finished, and while the 
workmen were gone to dinner. In 1847, the church was de- 
stroyed by fire, including a large fine toned bell and organ. The 
walls of the church being found in good condition, it was soon 
rebuilt as it is to-day. The whole number of church edifices de- 
stroyed by fire, since 1834, is 11. 



GENESEE RIVER FLOODS. 

In early days sudden freshets and great floods were not so 
common as now, owing to the fact that the country was new, and 
the snows of the upper country did not melt, and the water run 
off so rapidly as now. Still the early settlers saw, from the ap- 
pearance of the trees along the banks of the river, evidence of 
very high water at some time prior to their coming, and from 
the Indians they learned that about 1805 a great flood did occur, 
occasioned, no doubt, by the accumulation of ice at Avon, thus 
setting the water back upon the Genesee flats, as has since once 
happened. Aside from this, the first notable flood we are called 
to chronicle happened in September, 1835. A short time pre- 
vious to this, Mr. Nehemiah Osburn had made an addition in the 
rear of the wooden buildings on the north side of Main Street 
bridge, from the centre pier to the Globe Building on the east. 
This was undermined, and the whole structure tumbled into the 
river. The next great flood occurred in the spring of 1856. On 
this occasion, as many of our citizens will remember. Main Street 
bridge, and all the buildings on the north side of it, were carried 
away. Of the stone piers in the river, laid up without mortar, not 
one stone was left upon another. But the greatest overflowing 
of the Genesee, the most destructive tide of rushing waters that 
the oldest inhabitant ever witnessed, occurred in March, 1865. 
Bridges were impelled from their foundation ; buildings under- 
mined came crashing down ; railroad communication severed ; 
and heavy individual and corporation losses incurred. On the 
morning of March 18, nine tenths of the streets in the first 



APPENDIX. 371 

ward were under water, and many in the second, and in others. 
State Street for half a mile was under water from one to four feet. 
In the Arcade it was two feet deep ; at the corner of Buffalo and 
Front streets, from six to eight feet. It flowed over the west end 
of Main Street bridge of sufficient depth to float a well loaded 
canal boat. S. Richardson and D. R. Barton lost, by the falling 
of their buildings and in stock, $100,000. The bridge of the 
Central Railroad near the Falls gave way, and was hurled over 
the Falls. The territory covered by the waters in the city was a 
half mile long and one third of a mile wide, and the entire loss 
was fully one million of dollars. This great flood was, no doubt 
(in fact we know), caused by the accumulation of ice at Avon, as 
in the great flood of 1805, and is liable to happen again. 



CANAL AQUEDUCTS. 

The first canal aqueduct over the Genesee River was com- 
menced in 182 1, by William Britton, with thirty convicts from 
Auburn prison, who were kept upon the Island, with ball and 
chain, where Kimball's Tobacco Works now are. The aqueduct 
was constructed chiefly of red sandstone from the bank of the 
river at Carthage. It was 804 feet long, and was built on eleven 
arches. It was commenced on the 17th of July, and completed 
in September, 1823. Its cost was $83,000, 

THE NEW AQUEDUCT. 

This canal aqueduct was commenced in 1842, and was nearly 
two years in building. It is built of stone from Split Rock Quarry, 
in Onondaga County. Its total length is 800 feet. It consists of 
ten spans : two of twenty-five feet, seven of fifty-two feet, and one 
of thirty feet. Width of water-way forty-three feet. Depth seven 
feet eight and one fourth inches. Height from bed of the river 
to the coping twenty-seven feet. Its original cost was $445,387. 
The superintendent of the mason work committed suicide in this 
city, soon after the work was finished. 

GAS COMPANIES. 

Rochester Gas Light Cotnpany. Organized in 1848. 

Capital stock $700,000. 

Office and works corner of Mumford Street and Genesee Riven 



372 APPENDIX. 

Citizens Gas Company. Incorporated in 1872. 

Capital stock $500,000. 

This company supplies gas to consumers on the east side of 
the river only. General office 15 North St. Paul Street, gas works 
at Vincent Place Bridge. 

Municipal Gaslight Company. 

Supplies gas on either side of the Genesee River. Office No, 6 
Elwood Block. 



THE MUTUAL RELIEF SOCIETY OF ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
Office 28 Elwood Block. 

Membership 9,000. Has paid over $250,000 in death claims. 
The society is organized under the laws of the State of New 
York, and is managed by a board of directors, chosen by and 
from among its own members. 

THE MUTUAL AID AND ACCIDENT ASSOCIATION. 
No. 86 Powers Buildings, Rochester, N. Y. 

This association issues general life policies from $2,000 to 
$10,000 on the most favorable terms and approved plans. 

Both sexes are admitted on equal terms ; graded assessments 
according to age. 

Special features of reserve fund class. 

ROCHESTER GERMAN INSURANCE CO. \ 

Home Office No. 1 2 Rochester Savings Bank Building. 

Chartered 1872. 

Cash Capital $200,000. 

Unearned Premium Reserve $157,778. 

Reserve for unpaid losses, etc. $22,636. 

Net surplus $124,096. 

THE SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY OF ROCHESTER. 
Monroe County Savings Bank Building, 31 State Street- 

Incorporated March 30, 1868. 
Capital $100,000. 

Additional liability of stockholders $100,000. 
Storage for valuable papers, silver ware, jewelry, clothing, 
furniture, and valuable property of every description. 



APPENDIX. 373 



BANKS. 

Flour City National Batik. Incorporated as a state bank, 1856 ; 
reorganized as a national bank, 1865. 

Capital Stock, all paid in, $300,000. 

Surplus, January i, 1884, $233,366. 

Traders' National Bank. Incorporated as a state bank, 1859; 
reorganized as a national bank, 1865. 

Capital Stock $250,000. 

Surplus, January i, 1884, $336,099. 

Commercial National Bank. Incorporated 1878. 

Capital Stock, all paid in, $200,000. ' 

Surplus, January i, 1884, $84,927. 

Bank of Monroe. Incorporated as a state bank, 1867. 

Capital Stock $100,000. 

Surplus, January i, 1884, $197,712. 

Gerfftan American Bank. Incorporated 1875. 

Capital Stock $200,000. 

A new bank organized January 1, 1884. 

Merchants'' Bank of Rochester. Incorporated 1883. 

Capital Stock, all paid in, $100,000. 

Commenced business December 17, 1883. 

PRIVATE BANKS. 

D. W. Po2vers, Banker. Established in 1850. 
With one exception the oldest bank in Rochester. 
Erickson, jfennitigs, and Co., successors to Erickson, Jennings, 
and Mumford. 

SAVINGS BANKS. 

Rochester Savings Bank. Incorporated April 21, 183 1. 

Total resources $11,535,609. 

Due Depositors $10,358,304. 

Surplus $1,146,198. 

Monroe County Savings Bank. Incorporated 1850. 

Total resources $7,077,473. 

Due Depositors $6,039,399, 

Surplus $1,019,330. 

East Side Savings Bank. Incorporated 1869. 

Total resources, January i, 1884, $1,367,293. 



374 



APPENDIX. 



Due Depositors $1,203,002. 

Surplus $102,275. 

Mechanics' Savings Bank. Incorporated 1867. 

Total resources, January i, 1884, $1,673,924. 

Due Depositors $1,509,863. 

Surplus $159,911. 

THE HOTELS OF ROCHESTER. 

Perhaps there is no city, of the size of Rochester, where the 
hotel accommodations are greater or better than in our city. The 
new and grand Powers Hotel, strictly lire-proof, is unequaled 
by any hotel between the Hudson River and Chicago. The prin- 
cipal hotels are as follows : — 

Powers Hotel, West Main St., Buck and Sanger. 

Whitcomb House, no East Main St., Whitcomb and Crouch. 

New Osburn, 64 South St. Paul St., Elmer E. Almy. 

New National, West Main and Plymouth Ave., S. C Tibbets. 

Hotel Brunswick, 43 Fitzhugh St., S. Leiders. 

Clinton House, 28 Exchange St., B. L. Sheldon. 

Congress Hall, Central Ave., A. J. Axtell. 

Waverley Hotel, State St. and Central Ave., Axtell and King. 

Brackett House, Mill St. and Central Ave., James Day. 

In addition to the above are others affording good accommoda- 
tions, and negotiations are pending looking to the erection of an- 
other grand fire-proof hotel (and opera house) on North St. Paul 
and Mortimer streets. 

THE ROCHESTER CIRCUS 

was in existence as early as 1825, and was located on Exchange 
Street, opposite the Industrial School. Both a ring and stage 
performance were maintained at this primitive place of entertain- 
ment. In 1828, one Geo. H. Hill, the village paper hanger, was 
a great attraction, as a personator of the Down East Yankee, and 
after that for many years known all over the country as "famous 
Yankee Hill." Smooth Canada coppers washed with a little 
quicksilver, in imitation of well-worn Spanish quarters, used to 
pass current for tickets of admission. 

In after years the circus building was used for a candle factory 
by H. C. Frink, and later by the late John M. French as a stove 
foundry. 



APPENDIX. 



375 



ROCHESTER CITY AND BRIGHTON RAILROAD. 

Depot, 159 State Street. 

Incorporated 1863. President., Patrick Barry; Secretary, C. C. 
Woodworth ; Treasurer, C. B. Woodworth ; Siiperiute7ident, L. A. 
Green ; Assistant Superintendent, E. Sliultz. 

Number of cars on Lake and Mount Hope avenues . .19 

Number of cars on West and North Avenues . . 20 

Number of cars on Main, Alexander, and Park avenues 

Number of cars on North CUnton Street 

Number of cars on North St. Paul Street . 

Number of cars on Allen and Jay streets 

Number of cars on South Avenue 

Number of cars on Monroe Avenue 

Number of cars on Lyell Avenue 

Number of cars on N. Y. Central Depot Line 

Herdic Coaches, East Avenue . 

Cars on Caledonia Avenue .... 

Number of men employed ... 

Number of horses in use .... 



6 
6 
4 
7 
6 

4 

2 
2 

4 
225 
424 



BRIDGES OF THE PRESENT DAY. 

These are known as Main Street, Court Street, A7idrews Street, 
Clarissa Street, Vi?icent Place, and Ce?itral Avenue bridges. The 
first bridge over the river was built in 18 12, upon wooden piers. 
Beginning to decay, it was rebuilt by Elisha Johnson, in 1824, on 
stone piers, without mortar, and inclosing the timbers, chiefly of 
the old wood piers. The first to cross this bridge while building 
were Mrs. Thomas Child and her little daughter, now Mrs. J. M. 
Winslow, who were assisted over by their neighbor, Mr. Johnson. 

In 1834 this bridge was again rebuilt on the same piers. The 
present bridge was commenced in 1856, and finished in the 
spring of 1857. It is built chiefly of stone, designed for piers at 
Charlotte, which cost the United States Government more than 
one hundred thousand dollars, and which the city bought for 
about six thousand dollars. Contractor, Charles B. Coleman ; 
Engineer, Josiah W. Bissell. 

In 18 19 the second bridge over the Genesee was built by, a pri- 
vate company, a short distance above the Upper Falls, and was a 
toll-brids:e. 



376 APPENDIX. 

CARTHAGE BRIDGE. 

This wonder of early days was built by Norton, Beach & 
Strong. It was commenced in 1818, and completed in the spring 
of 1819. It consisted of an entire arch, the chord of which was 
352 feet, the summit of which was 200 feet above the surface of 
the water. Its length was 718 feet, and its width 30 feet. It 
contained 70,000 feet of timber, and 64,620 feet of board meas- 
ure. The arch consisted of nine ribs, two feet four inches thick, 
and secured by 800 strong iron bolts. 

The fourth bridge over the river was built soon after the de- 
struction of the " Carthage Bridge," a short distance above the 
Lower P'alls. 

Court Street Bridge was built in 1826, a wooden structure, on 
stone piers, laid without mortar. It has since been rebuilt of 
iron, on stone piers, laid with mortar. 

Andrews Street Bridge was built about fifty years ago. It was 
originally a wooden bridge, on stone piers ; has since been re- 
built with iron, on the same piers, lengthened, and raised several 
feet. 

Clarissa Street Bridge is the seventh in order, and was built 
about thirty years ago, being the first iron truss bridge over the 
Genesee in Rochester. 

Vineent Place Bridge was built in 1873, and is the eighth. The 
iron-work was constructed by the Leighton Bridge Company. 

Central Avefiue Bridge was built during the fall of 1883. It is 
an iron bridge, on substantial stone piers, and cost about $40,000. 

THE ROCHESTER POST OFFICE. 

In November, 181 2, Abelard Reynolds was appointed the first 
postmaster in Rochester. The office thus established was held 
by Mr. Reynolds till 1829. The proceeds of the office up to 
April I, 1 8 13, had been three dollars and forty -six cents. When 
he passed the office to other hands, in 1829, they amounted to 
two thousand one hundred and five dollars and sixteen cents. 

During the year ending December 31, i868, the sale of stamps, 
stamped envelopes, and postal cards amounted to $58,973.42 ; 
during the year ending December 31, 1883, $257,438.12 ; in- 
crease in fifteen years, $198,464.70. 



APPENDIX. 377 

THE FIRST ROCHESTER THEATRE. 

This was a wooden structure on Carroll, now State Street, op- 
posite Market Street. It had a stock companj', and was open 
during the fall and winter months. We call to mind the names 
of some of the actors : Mr. and Mrs. Judah, Mr. and Mrs. Brew- 
ster, the latter, stage-name for Mr. and Mrs. C J. B. Mount, well 
known in later years as nice people living on South Street. 

About 1830 the old theatre was turned into a livery stable, and 
kept for a number of years by Joseph Christopher, and then by 
the late S. Kershaw, who was the pioneer druggist of Frankfort. 

ASSOCIATIONS AND SOCIETIES. 

POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION. 

Organized 1874. 
This association provides a fund for the relief of families of 
deceased members. 

ORATORIO SOCIETY OF ROCHESTER. 

Organized 1882. 
Annual meeting last Wednesday in May. 

ROCHESTER DRIVING PARK ASSOCIATION. 

Organized 1873. 
Annual meeting in January. 

ROCHESTER AND CHARLOTTE TURNPIKE ROAD COMPANY. 

84 Powers Block. Incorporated 1880. 
Annual meeting in April. 

YOUNG men's CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 

Organized 1S75. Incorporated 1880. 
Rooms 18 Main Street Bridge. Annual meeting in September. 

MENDELSSOHN VOCAL SOCIETY. 

Organized February, 1883. 
President, D. W. Powers ; Vice Presidetit, E. H. Satterlee. Re- 
hearsals every Thursday evening. Director, Henry Greiner. 



378 APPENDIX. 

LIBRARIES. 

Central Library, Free Academy Building, Fitzhugh Street. A 
free library, under the control of the School Commissioners. 

Reynolds Library., over the post-office, lately chartered by the 
Legislature. 

YOUNG men's catholic ASSOCIATION OF ROCHESTER. 

Incorporated 1872. No. 120 West Main Street. 
President, Rt. Rev. E. J. McQuaid. Annual meeting and elec- 
tion of directors in April. 

MASONIC. 

The number of Lodges, Chapters, Councils, Commanderies, 
Consistories, Temples, and Relief Associations of the Masonic 
Fraternity in the city is twenty. 

I. o. o. F. 
The number of Encampments, Subordinate Lodges, Degree 
Lodges, Associations, etc., of this Order is twenty-three. 

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 

Good Templars, Royal Templars, Knights of Temperance, 
Women's Temperance Unions, — in all, eight. 

CLUBS. 

Abclard Club. 137 Powers Buildings. Organized 1872. In- 
corporated, 1875. Annual Meeting in January. 

Amity Club. Rooms in Powers Buildings. Organized March, 
1872. Meets first Tuesday in each month. 

Cecelia Glee Club. Annual Meeting in October of each year. 

Celtic Club. Organized 1874. Rooms 134 Powers Buildings. 
Annual Meeting in November. 

Eureka Club. Organized 1882. Rooms 40 North Clinton 
Street. Officers elected annually in June. 

Griffith Club. 

Genesee Bicycle Club. Organized 1883. Rooms 136 State 
Street. 

Henry Gratian Club. 

Lincoln Club. Organized 1878. Incorporated 1883. Meets at 
Lincoln Hall, West Main Street, corner of Plymouth Ave. 



APPENDIX. 379 

Mo7iroe County Sportsman' s Club. Room 128 Arcade. Meets 
first Thursday in each month. 

Old Star Club. Incorporated 1872. Cottage Irondequoit 
Bay. Meets first Monday in each month at 85 Exchange Street. 
Annual Meeting first Saturday in May. 

Opera Club of Rochester, Comedy Hall, 72 State Street. Or- 
ganized 1879. Ofircers elected annually in May. 

Riverside Rowing Club. Organized 1869. Incorporated 18720 
Boat-house foot of Griffith Street. 

Rochester Bicycle Club. Organized 1880. Rooms 135^ W. 
Main Street. 

Rochester Canoe Club. Commodore George H. Harris. 

Rochester Gun Club. Organized 1879. Annual Meeting sec- 
ond Monday in April. 

Windsor Club. Organized 1876. Annual Meeting in January. 
Rooms 35 State Street. 

FIRE DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER. 

Formerly Firemen's Benevolent Association. 
This body was incorporated for the purpose of taking charge 
of certain moneys assessed by law upon all insurance companies 
outside of the State doing business in Rochester. The interest 
accruing on money so received is devoted to the relief of indi- 
gent, disabled firemen and their families. The fund amounts to 
$47,089.44, yielding an annual income of about $2,500. Office 
207 Powers Block. 

HUMANE SOCIETY OF ROCHESTER. 

Organized 1865. 
For the prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Children. Com- 
plaints may be left in box kept for the purpose in Mayor's Office. 
Regular Meetings first Wednesday of each month, at 207 Powers 
Block. 

ROCHESTER SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 

Incorporated, January 27, 1880. 

President, Sarah R. A. Dolley, M. D, 

The objects of this Society are to promote the study and teach- 
ing of the Natural Sciences, through the mutual instruction of the 
members of said Society, by the reading and discussion of papers 
by said members, the formation of a museum and library, the 



3 So APPENDIX. 

procurement of lectures, and by such other means as shall be de- 
sirable and efficient for those purposes. Annual Meeting in 
March. 

ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 

Incorporated, May 14, 1881. 

President, H. F. Atwood. 

The object is to promote scientific study and research, and es- 
pecially a thorough knowledge of the natural history of that part 
of the State of New York in the vicinity of Rochester, and to 
make permanent collections of objects illustrative of the different 
branches of science. Meetings are held on the second Monday 
of every month. 

ROCHESTER ART EXCHANGE AND BUREAU OF INSTRUCTION. 

Organized, February i, 1881. 
Its object is to provide for the sale of art work, and to main- 
tain classes for instruction in several branches of art. Free 
classes in charcoal drawing and embroidery have also been main- 
tained each year, and, as showing the practical result of artistic 
education, many of the pupils are now supporting themselves in 
various branches of decorative industrial work. The aim of this 
Society is to assist those who strive to help themselves, and the 
great benefits from the association are becoming thoroughly rec- 
ognized by our citizens. The officers for the current year are • 
Miss Lois Whitney, President ; Miss Stella Shuart, Secretary ; 
together with Vice Presidents and a board of Directresses. 

ROCHESTER BUSINESS UNIVERSITY 

Is an institution for the commercial education of young men 
and women. It was established in 1864, and is known far and 
wide, taking high rank among institutions of its kind. Its Fac- 
ulty is composed of men eminent in their specialties, and its 
graduates are sought for by business men in all directions. L. 
L. Williams is President, and F. E. Rogers, Secretary. 

THE ROCHESTER ART CLUB. 

Organized, 1877. Incorporated, 1882. 
Charter Members. James Hogarth Dennis, Harvey Ellis, J. 
Guernsey Mitchell, James Somerville, Horatio Walker, John Z. 
Wood. 



APPENDIX. 381 

The object of the organization is the cultivation and advance- 
ment of the Fine and Industrial Arts ; and an exhibition has been 
held in May of each year, since its organization, with marked and 
increasing success. 



ROCHESTER FEMALE CHARITABLE SOCIETY. 

This Society was organized February 22, 1822, at the house of 
Mr. Everard Peck. A President, Vice President, Treasurer, twelve 
Directresses, and fifteen Visitors were chosen. The primary ob- 
jects of the Society, the relief of indigent sick persons, and the 
establishment of a charity school. It is the oldest charitable in- 
stitution in Rochester, and in it we find the germs of more than 
one important public institution. In 1844, the Society sent to 
the Common Council the first petition for a workhouse, and 
which resulted in the erection of the penitentiary. 

ROCHESTER ORPHAN ASYLUM. 

Hubbell Park. 

This institution was organized in 1837, under the name of " The 
Rochester Female Association, for the Relief of Orphans and Des- 
titute Children.'' It was opened with nine children. In March, 
1838, it was incorporated under the name of "The Rochester 
Orphan Asylum." The main building was erected in 1844, and 
in 1870 the wing on the east side was erected at a cost of more 
than ten thousand four hundred dollars. y\nother addition was 
made in 1873, which, with repairs on the main building, cost over 
twenty thousand dollars. Since its organization over two thou- 
sand children have shared its fosterina: care. 



HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESS. 

East Avenue and Alexander Street. 

This institution was founded in 1849, and incorporated by act 
of the legislature June 4, 1855. It is designed to furnish a tem- 
porary home for destitute females, and a permanent abode for 
the aged and infirm. It is under the control of a body of be- 
nevolent ladies, who use every endeavor to render it pleasant 
and attractive. It is supported by individual and church contri- 
butions, and also by the county, city and state aid. 



382 APPENDIX. 

HOME OF INDUSTRY. 

South St. Paul Street. 
Its object is to afford a home to girls who are out of employ- 
ment, and an opportunity to its permanent inmates to learn use- 
ful trades. It is under the charge of the venerable Sister Hie- 
ronymo, assisted by several of the Sisters of St. Joseph. 

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 

76 Exchange Street. 
"The objects of this association are, to gather into the school 
vagrant and destitute children, who from poverty or vice of their 
parents, arc unable to attend the pnblic schools.^' This organiza- 
tion had its birth in the midst of a winter of great severity, and 
when there was a great pressure in the money market. The first 
cash contributions were from H. A. Brewster and A. Champion, 
who each gave one hundred dollars ; Samuel P. Ely and George 
H. Ely each gave fifty dollars ; and John M. French gave the 
free use of rooms in the Old Rochester House. On Christmas, 
1856, more than three hundred destitute children partook of a 
good dinner provided for them. During the first year two hun- 
dred and sixty-four girls and two hundred and seventy-two boys 
were connected with the school ; ten children provided with 
homes ; seven hundred garments, one hundred and nineteen 
pairs of shoes, and twenty-one pairs of rubbers were distributed 
among them. 

THE SOCIETY OF THE RED CROSS, OF MONROE COUNTY. 

President. Edward M. Moore, M. D. 

Vice President. Mrs. Sarah Nichols. 

Secretary. Rev. H. C. Riggs, D. D. 

Treasurer. J. E. Pierpont. 

This Society is auxiliary to the New York State Society (when 
formed), and the National Society located at Washington, D. C. 
Its object is to alleviate the sufferings and prevent barbarities 
upon fields of battle, as contemplated by the Convention of Ge- 
neva, Switzerland, August, 1864. Also, for rendering of aid in 
material, money, and in furnishing nurses and other assistance 
in cases of public calamity by pestilence, fire, famine, and other 
causes. 

The Executive Committee consists of fifteen members. There 



APPENDIX. 383 

are also sixteen additional Vice Presidents, both ladies and gen- 
tlemen, being one for each ward in the city. 

CHURCH HOME. 

Mount Hope Avenue. 

This Charitable Institution of the Episcopal Church of the 
city of Rochester was organized June 10, 1868, and incorporated 
September 10, 1869. 

It is designed as a Home for Orphans and aged persons of this 
Church, although it receives applicants from other churches. 

The building is of Medina stone, and is a well-finished and 
commodious structure. It owes its existence in a great measure 
to the thoughtful liberality of George E. Mumford, Esq., the late 
George R. Clark, and his deceased daughter, Mary Clark Proc- 
tor. 

The Home is conducted by a board of lady managers from 
the different churches. 

Regular meetings first Friday of each month. 

WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE, 

Phelps Avenue. 

This institution for juvenile delinquents is a reform school of 
undoubted excellence. The act authorizing its establishment 
was passed May 8, 1846. 

The farm upon which the institution is located contains forty- 
two acres of valuable land, and lies in the northwest part of the 
city. A stone wall twenty feet in height incloses six and a half 
acres upon which the several costly buildings stand. A stockade 
fence, nine feet high, incloses twenty acres, while the remaining 
ten acres are used for pasturage. Walks, playgrounds, and 
lawns, ornamented with trees and shrubbery, give beauty to the 
place and comfort to the inmates. 

MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY, 

Located in the south part of the city, overlooking the Genesee 
River, It was commenced by the city in 1836, by the purchase 
of fifty acres ; it now contains two hundred acres, by several ad- 
ditional purchases in subsequent years. Number of interments 
during the year ending May 31, 1883, 1,177. Total number of 
interments May 31, 1883, 34,407. In October, 1838, Mount 
Hope was dedicated with public ceremonies, the address being 
made by the Rev. Pharcellus Church, D. D. 



384 APPENDIX. 

The first interment at Mount Hope was made August 18, 1838. 
In 1859 an entrance was constructed at a cost of more than ten 
thousand dollars. This building was taken down in 1874, and 
was replaced by the present handsome edifice. 

HOLY SEPULCHRE CEMETERY. 

Incorporated, April 24, 1872. 
This beautiful cemetery is located on Lake Avenue, in the 
town of Greece. It is under the management of a Board of 
Trustees composed of the Bishop of the Diocese, four priests, 
and ten laymen. Number of interments during the year ending 
May 31, 1883, 766. Total number of interments, 7,230. 

ST. Peter's and st. Paul's cemetery. 
Located on Maple Street, near Childs. 

ST, Patrick's cemetery. 
Located in the southeastern part of the city, on the western 
slope of Pinnacle Hill. 

ST. Boniface's cemetery. 
Pinnacle Avenue. 

UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER. 

Trustees. President, John B. Trevor, of Yonkers ; Vice Pres- 
ident, Rev. Edward Bright, D. D., of Yonkers ; Secretary and 
Treasurer, William N. Sage, of Rochester. 

This noble institution is pleasantly situated on high ground, 
ten acres in extent, the gift of Azariah Boody, Esq. The Library 
(in Sibley Hall) is open free to the public for consultation daily, 
from 12.30 to 5 p. M., except Sundays. 

ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 

East Avenue, Corner Alexander Street. 
This institution was founded in 1851, by the Baptist denomina- 
tion of the State of New York, for the purpose of educating 
young men for the sacred ministry. In the year of its organiza- 
tion it had three professors and forty-five students. The Semi- 
nar}^ has been very successful. It has now three fine buildings, 
valued at $140,000. Its library is very valuable, and comprises 
the collection of the grreat Neander. 



APPENDIX. 



385 







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APPENDIX. 



Real Estate 
Personal Estate 



WEALTH OF ROCHESTER. 

The Assessors'" Valuation. 

i8So. 1881. 1882. 

$34,408,725 $34,506,225 $34,840,975 
1,432,144 1,291,320 1,202,395 



1883. 
j6, 166,200 
1,817,200 



Total 35,840,869 35,797,545 36,043,370 37,983-400 

Amount of City Tax.i $840,953.84 $871,607.18 $1,013,541.26 $1,034,322.21 

THE CITY DEBT. 

The City Debt, June 15, 1883, consists of the following loans 

Genesee Valley Railroad Loan (reissue) . . $148,000 

Rochester and State Line Railroad . . 600,000 

Rochester, Nunda, and Penn. Railroad . . 150,000 

Arsenal Site ....... 9,000 

Floating Debt ....... 210,000 

City Hall Commissioners .... 335,000 

Free Academy Site and Building . . . 140,000 

Deficiency, unpaid taxes . . . ' . . 50,000 

Water Works ....... 3,182,000 

Funding Loan, 1875 ..... 410,000 

School No. 5 ...... . 20,000 

Consolidated Loan ...... 100,000 



THE TAX LEVY, 1 883. 

Lighting the City .... 
Support of the Police Department 
General Contingent Fund 
Support and Relief of the Poor . 
Board of Health and Garbage . 

Support of Common Schools, viz : — 
Building Fund . . . . ■ t 
Repair Fund ..... 
Contingent Fund .... 
Teachers' Fund .... 

Erroneous Assessments . . . . 
City Property Fund .... 
Maintenance of Public Parks 

' See Tax Levy below. 



5^5'354,ooo 

$65,000.00 
60,000.00 
45,000.00 
30,000.00 
12,000.00 



30,000 
10,000 
46,500 
88,500 



175,000.00 
2,219.47 
3,000.00 
2,000.00 



APPENDIX. 



387 



Payment of Bonds falling clue in 1882 and 1883 $23,950.00 
Payment of Notes given for deficiencies in sev- 
eral funds for 18S3 219,440.79 

Local Assessments on City Property . , . 3>78i-95 

Executive Boards, viz : — 
Fire Department Fund . , , $70,000 
Extension of Water Pipe . . 22,810 

Highway Fund 25,000 

Repair and Care of Avenues . . 4,200 

Salaries and Expenses . . . 8,000 



Interest on bonded debt as follows, 
at seven per cent. : — 
Water Works Loan 
Rochester and State Line Railroad 

Loan ...... 

R., N. and Penn. Railroad Loan 

City Hall Loan 

Free Academy Loan . 

Free Academy Site 

Funding Loan, 1875 . 

Floating Debt 

Deficiency Loan 

School No. 5 Loan 

Arsenal Site 

At four per cent. : — 
Consolidated Loan 



130,010.00 



222,740 

42,000 

10,500 

23,450 

8,750 

1,050 

28,700 

14,700 

3,500 

1,400 

130 

6,000 



Amount required to pay interest . $362,920 
Deduct receipts from Water Works to 

apply on interest on bonds . 100,000 

262,920.00 



Total Tax Levy 



$1,034,322.21 



THE MILLING INTEREST OF ROCHESTER. 

In 1826, there were seven merchant millers in Rochester. The 
returns of flour made at their mills, at the end of the year, was as 
follows : — 

Beach's mill 24,000 Barrels. 

Brown's mill . • . = • 20,000 " 
Atkinson's mill . - . . 20,500 " 



388 APPENDIX. 

Rochester's mill .... 20,000 Barrels. 

Cleveland's mill .... 15,700 " 

Strong's mill ..... 17,000 " 

Ely's mill ..... 32,389 " 

In 1827, Beach & Kempshall built the "Big Mill," known in 
late years as the " Bee-Hive " building, designed for ten run of 
stones. While building, four or five men at work on a staging 
near the eaves, shingling the roof, fell into the race below, and all 
were drowned. Between this and 1S34 several other mills were 
built, among the number the mill of Warham Whitney, at the end 
of Brown's Race ; the Crescent Mill, by Thomas Emerson, on 
South Water Street ; the remodeling of the old cotton factory 
on Brown's Race into a mill, by Silas O. Smith ; the reconstruc- 
tion of the mill of Hervey Ely, at the east end of the Aqueduct, 
and several others; so that by 1834 Rochester had become the 
greatest manufactory of flour in the world, turning out six hun- 
dred thousand barrels of flour annually, — Genesee flour having 
achieved a world-wide fame. This important industry has of 
course, since that day, very much declined, or rather failed to 
keep pace with the development of the West, and the facilities 
for manufacturing flour in that portion of our vast country. Still, 
very large quantities of flour are made in Rochester at the pres- 
ent time, and it well maintains its old time popularity and excel- 
lence, — the number of mills now being eighteen, and nearly all 
of them with the latest improvements in machinery, with an an- 
nual production of 550,000 barrels of flour. 

ROCHESTER CITY HOSPITAL. 

No. 93 West Avenue. 

This institution was incorporated by act of legislature May 7, 
1847. It is located on the site of the old "Western Cemetery," 
a plot of ground containing about three acres, conveyed to the 
hospital by the common council in 185 1. The main building is 
of brick, fifty by sixty feet, and four stories high. The east 
wing was completed in 1865. It is eighty feet long, with a tran- 
sept wing, forty by twenty-five feet, two stories high, with base- 
ment. The west wing, designed exclusively for female patients, 
was completed in 187 1. The hospital has a capacity of one 
hundred and seventy-five beds. It is conducted by a board of 
lady managers appointed by the Rochester Female Charitable 



APPENDIX. 389 

Society. It has three visiting surgeons, whose services are given 
free. Two resident physicians, one ocuhst, matron, etc. etc. 

ST. Mary's hospital. 

West Avenue, corner Genesee Street. 

The Sisters of Charity commenced their hospital in two small 
stone stables on Genesee Street, near Main, in 1857. From this 
small beginning by these trusting faithful women has arisen the 
large and noble hospital as it now stands, costing more than two 
hundred thousand dollars. During the war the hospital accom- 
modated five hundred wounded and sick soldiers, besides a large 
number of other sick poor. St. Mary's Hospital is, and always 
has been, a benevolent institution. No one was ever turned away 
because he had nothing wherewith to pay. Though the sisters 
find themselves occasionally embarrassed by financial matters, 
they are neither dismayed nor disheartened by the obstacles that 
oppose them, relying as they do on the providence of God, that 
He will give them the means in his own good time to support the 
sick poor. 

MANUFACTURE OF BOOTS AND SHOES. 

This is one of the most extensive and important manufactur- 
ing industries in our city, giving employment to an immense num- 
ber of men and women, and doing much to advance the prosper- 
ity of Rochester. We cannot estimate too highly the importance 
to our city of these two great industries, the manufacture of boots 
and shoes and ready made clothing, in which there is no doubt 
more capital invested, and more persons employed, than in all 
other manufactures combined. The following statistics of a few 
of the leading firms in the manufacture of boots and shoes will 
give some idea of its extent and importance. 
D. Armstrong & Co., Annual Sales .... $250,000 

Hands employed ...... 140 

Brooks & Reynolds, Annual Sales .... $200,000 

Hands employed (chiefly boys in Refuge) . 150 

P. Cox, Annual Sales $600,000 

Hands employed ...... 450 

Hough & Ford, Annual Sales $550,000 

Hands employed ...... 200 

A. J. Johnson &: Co., Annual Sales . «, . . $400,000 

Hands employed ...... 300 



390 APPENDIX. 

Reed & Weaver, Annual Sales ..... $400,000 

Hands employed ...... 300 

D. W. Wright &: Co., Annual Sales .... $300,000 

Hands employed ...... 250 

Curtis & Wheeler (Mill Street), Annual Sales . . $400,000 

Hands employed . . . . . . 350 

L. P. Ross estate Street), Annual Sales . . . $1,000,000 

Hands employed ...... 75 

Other large firms are, Byrnes, Dugan & Hudson, J. D. Cox, A. 
C. Eastwood, I. W. Graffin, Jaquith & Co., Robinson & Cole, 
Sherwood, Goodman, and A sties, Williams & Hoyt, Wheeler & 
Wales, D. H. Westbury & Co., and many more. 

THE MANUFACTURE OF CLOTHING. 

Forty years ago, when it was feared by our citizens that, from 
one cause and another, the milling interest might not keep pace 
with the same industry in other parts of the country, thus retard- 
ing the growth and prosperity of the city, it was hoped that our 
excellent water power would attract other kinds of business, and 
make up for what might be lost in connection with the manu- 
facture of flour, which first gave Rochester its early and rapid 
growth. This hope to a considerable extent has been realized. 
Still it is plain to be seen that Rochester no longer is dependent 
upon its water power to insure its future prosperity. The " Sew- 
ing Machine " is already doing more than the water power can 
do hereafter. The important industry of clothing manufacture 
is one of the most extensive and important in our city. More 
than twenty firms composed of thorough business men, and with 
ample capital, are giving work to thousands of operatives, thus 
indicating most plainly its vast importance to our city. The fol- 
lowing statement of annual sales, of a few of the leading houses, 
will give some idea of the immense business in the manufacture 
and sale of ready made clothing. 

W'ile, Stern & Co., Annual Sales .... $350,000 

Simon, Hays & Sons, Annual Sales . . . 300,000 

Lichenstein, Rothschild & Co., Annual Sales . . 650,000 

Cauffman, Dinkelspeil & Co., Annual Sales . . 650,000 

Strouss, Moore & Bier, Annual Sales .... 550,000 

J. W. Rosenthal & Co., Annual Sales . . . 750,000 

Michaels, Koch & Stern, Annual Sales . . . 800,000 



APPENDIX. 



391 



In addition to the above there are many other firms that do as 
large or nearly as large a business, among which are Gallagher, 
Kelly & Johnson, J. A. Britenstool, Garson, Meyer & Co., L. 
Garson & Co., Hays & Thalheimer, Kolb, McMahon & Best, 
Levi, Schwarz & Co., Oppenheimer, Hays & Co., Rosenberg, 
Wolf & Blum, H. Schwarz & Co., Webber, Shell, Rosenbaum & 
Co., Wile, Brickner, & Wile, and others. 



POPULATION OF THE CITY 

First census, 1815 
Second census, 1818 
Third census, 1820 
Fourth census, 1822 
Fifth census, 1825 
State census, August, 1825 
Seventh census, 1826 . 
Eighth census, 1830 
Ninth census, 1840 
Tenth census, 1845 • 
Eleventh census, 1850 . 
Twelfth census, 1855 
Thirteenth census, i860 
Fourteenth census, 1865 . 
Fifteenth census, 1870 
Sixteenth census, 1875 
Seventeenth census, 1880 
Present population, estimated . 



NEWSPAPERS. 

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle 
Rochester Union and Advertiser. 
Rochester Morning Herald 
Post-Express ..... 
Rochester Abend Post and Reobachter 
Rochester Volksblatt 
Rochester Sunday Journal . 
Sunday Truth ..... 
Sunday Morning Herald 
Vicks Illustrated Monthly Magazine 
American Rural Home 
The Casket (monthly) 



AT DIFFERENT DATES. 



1,094 

1,502 
2,700 
4,274 

5,273 
7,669 
9,269 
20,191 
25,261 
36,403 
43,877 
48,204 
50,940 
62,386 
81,622 

89,363 
110,000 



3 West Main Street 

44 Exchange Street 

2i2> Exchange Street 

12 Mill Street 

5 Mumford Street 

18 North St. Paul Street 

18 North St. Paul Street 

. South St. Paul Street 

Aqueduct Street 

327 East Avenue 

53 Arcade 

113 Powers Buildings 



392 APPENDIX. 

Empire State Agriculturist . . . 163 East Main Street 

Exponent ..... 144 East Main Street 

Hospital Review (monthly) . . 2 Tremont Street 

Industrial School Advocate, (monthly) 2 Tremont Street 

Rochester Catholic Volkszeitung . 124^ West Main Street 

EARLY MEMBERS OF THE ROCHESTER BAR. 

First among the names of the honored members of the Roches- 
ester Bar stands that of Vincent Mathews, who has been properly 
styled the " Father of the Bar of Western New York." Others 
were, Isaac Hills, Moses Chapin, Ashley Sampson, Elisha B. 
Strong, Timothy Childs, Addison Gardner, Samuel L. Selden, 
Henry R. Selden, Harvey Humphrey, James H. Gregory, Selah 
Mathews, Richard C Jones, E. B. Wheeler, James R. Doolittle, 
P. G. Buchan, Charles M. Lee, E. S. Lee, Henry E. Rochester, 
Frederick Whittlesey, Wm. W. Mumford, Enos Pomeroy, Fletcher 
M. Haight, William S. Bishop, Graham H. Chapin, Ariel Went- 
worth, M. F. Delano, I. R. Elwood, Horace Gay, Robert Haight, 
Hiram Leonard, Samuel Miller, T. B. Hamilton, John C. Nash, 
E. Darwin Smith, Joseph A. Eastman, Joseph D. Husbands, Or- 
lando Hastings, Jasper W. Gilbert, J. W. Dwinnelle, A. S. Alex- 
ander, Hester L. Stevens, Abner Pratt, Alba Lathrop. 

Pioneers, and still residents of Rochester, who were in active 
business fifty years ago : — 

David C. Ailing, Benjamin M. Baker, A. B. Buckland, Elisha W. 
Bryan, Giles Carter, John Dart, Richard Howell, INiichael Mad- 
den, Samuel Moulson, John Quinn, Robert Shields, Joseph Tal- 
madge, Nehemiah Osburn, J. M. Southwick, Dr. Geo. A. Bartho- 
lick, William Ailing, Lewis Chapin, Isaac Haight, Jacob Howe,. 
H. B. Sherman, William Ailing, Philip Kirley, Julius T. An- 
drews, J. M. Winslow, Evan Evans, John F. Bush, Ambrose 
Cram, Elihu H. Grover, Isaac Loomis, David Dickey, Darius Per- 
rin, Ashbel W. Riley, Alvah Strong, Stephen Y. Ailing, Thomas 
J. Patterson, Schuyler Moses, William I. Hanford, Joseph Stone, 
Joel Anderson, John Gorton, J. W. Hatch, John McKibbin, Al- 
bert Walker, George Arnold. 

PHYSICIANS OF EARLY DAYS. 

John D. Henry, Simon Hunt, J. C. Landon, Jas. S. Monroe, 
John B. Elwood, Anson Colman, Eli Day, Thomas Havill, Alex- 
ander Kelsey, J. W. Russell, E. G. Peckham, Henry A. Deforest, 



APPENDIX. 393 

E. S. Marsh, P. G. Shipman, James Webster, Edward M. Moore, 
A. G. Smith, Jas. W. Smith, H. Graham, F. F. Backus, D. Knick- 
erbocker, P. G. Tobey, Ezra Strong, Daniel McGregor, George 
Swinburne, John Rolph, Wm. W. Reid, T. B. V. Durand, E. G. 
Munn, John Smyles, J. H. Van Ever)-, Frank H, Hamilton, Henry 
W. Dean. 

ROCHESTER DRUGGISTS, 45 AND 5° YEARS AGO. 

William Pitkin, Lansing B. Swan, George Brace, Post & Willis, 
J. & D. Hawks, J. M. Winslow, Dr. L. Tousey, P. P. Thayer. 
Only one of the above named druggists now living. 

THE PATENT MEDICINE BUSINESS. 

Within the last forty years quite a number of fortunes amount- 
ing to millions of dollars, have been made by the sale of patent 
or proprietary medicines, among which are the following : Jaynes' 
Family Medicines, Schenck's Pulmonic Syrup, J. C. Ayer's Medi- 
cines, Townsend's Sarsaparilla, and some others. " Have we a 
millionaire among us," in the same line of business ? If not al- 
ready, the prospect is pretty fair that we soon shall have. The 
various remedies of our public spirited townsman, H. H. Warner, 
from present indications, promise, as the result of merit and his 
bold manipulation, the richest returns. He has, we learn, three 
glass factories running wholly on bottles for his laboratory, and 
the sales amount to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a 
a month. However marvelous his success may be, we are sure 
that our city will not be the loser by his good fortune. 

THE EARLY ROCHESTER DENTISTS. 

The dentists of fifty years ago were Lewis K. Faulkner, Ho- 
ratio N. Fenn, and David Haines. At that period artificial teeth 
were worked out by hand from ivory, and but little if any plate 
work was made. Artificial teeth, as now made, were first manu- 
factured in Philadelphia about 1845. Jones & White, Orum & 
Armstrong, and Dr. John Kline, being the manufacturers. In 
New York, as early as 1850, Dr. James Alcock was engaged in 
the business on a large scale, and later they were manufactured 
by Roberts, and the New York Teeth Company. The oldest 
practitioners of Dental Surgery in our city at the present time 
are Drs. A. A. Morgan and E. F. Wilson, well known as skillful 
operators. 



394 APPENDIX. 

POWERS ART GALLERY. 

One of the objects proposed by Mr. Powers in the estabhsh- 
ment of his famous gallery was to show and explain the noted 
paintings of those great artists known as the " Old Masters." 
Most of the original works of the great painters, that have much 
merit, it is well known, are in the Royal Galleries and Palace 
Halls of European cities. But copies of them are occasionally 
made which rival the originals in excellence, and surpass them, of 
course, in freshness and beauty of coloring ; many such may be 
seen in the gallery of Mr. Powers. In this collection will also 
be found the best examples of recent art — pictures of home life, 
views of the beautiful and sublime in nature. A large number of 
modern original paintings, from the studios of the most noted 
artists of Europe, have been imported, and added to this collec- 
tion, and it is no presumption to claim that the Art Gallery of 
Mr. Powers is second to none in this country for the number and 
value of its works of art. 

RAILROADS. 

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Passenger 
Depot, Central Avenue and North St. Paul Street. 

Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad. Passenger Depot, Ex- 
change Street. 

Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad. Passenger Depot, West 
Avenue, corner North Ford Street. 

Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia Railroad. Passenger De- 
pot and Offices on Trowbridge Street. 

New York, West Shore, and Buffalo Railroad. Depot and Of- 
fice, Trowbridge Street. 

Rochester and Lake Ontario Railroad. Passenger Depot and 
office, North Avenue. 

Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Railroad. Passenger De- 
pot at Charlotte. 

Rochester and Ontario Belt Railroad. President, J- R- Dillon ; 
Vice President, T. H. Baily. 

Rochester, Lake Side, and Braddock's Bay Railroad. Incor- 
porated 1881. Office 99 Powers Buildings. 

THE ICE INDUSTRY. 

In the summer of 1828, the writer used to go with a wheel- 
barrow to a small ice-house, early each morning, under the hill 



APPENDIX. 395 

just west of the Jewish Synagogue, on North St. Paul Street, for 
ice for a soda fountain in a drug store on fhe bridge. Aside 
from this, and a soda fountain kept by J. L. D. Mathies in the 
post-office building, where the Arcade now is, there was probably 
no ice used in Rochester. As late as 1850, ice was regarded as 
a luxury and not a necessity, and only two persons were engaged 
in the business, and that in a small way. Market men and the 
breweries used but little, and the trade with private families was 
quite limited. In 1852, Mr. E. L. Thomas, of 159 Alexander 
Street, came to Rochester, and commenced the erection of a 
large ice-house. He was cautioned against such an outlay ; that 
there was nothing to warrant it, and that it would prove a loss to 
him ; but he went forward, built his ice-house, and when the sea- 
son came, he brought out his " ice-plough," to the wonder of 
crowds of people, to look at a man ploughing ice, instead of land, 
at the rate of from one to two thousand tons a day. At that time 
there was not in use such a thing as an ice-plough west of the 
Hudson River. The amount of ice used in this city at the present 
time is probably about equally divided between the large brew- 
eries and the rest of the entire city. 

BREWERIES. 

The Rochester breweries are celebrated for the purity and ex- 
cellence of the beer and ales produced, which are shipped in 
every direction. The number of barrels brewed and the amount 
of ice used annually will no doubt surprise many. 
Bartholomy Brewing Comi3any, Annual Sales . 150,000 Bbls. 

Ice, for present season .... 55,000 tons 

Men employed ...... 100 

Rochester Brewing Company, Annual Sales . 75, 000 bbls. 

Ice, for present season .... 40,000 tons 
Genesee Brewing Company, Annual Sales . 45,000 bbls. 

Ice for this season ..... 12,000 tons 
Miller Brewing Company, Annual Sales, Beer and Ale 20,000 bbls. 

Ice for season ...... 8,000 tons 

Hathaway & Gordon, Annual Sales of Ale . 10,000 bbls. 

E. K. Warren & Son, Annual Sales of Ale . . 8,000 bbls. 
Other brewers are J. G. Baetzel & Brother, Patrick Enright^ 
Meyer, Leobs & Co., and several others. 



396 APPENDIX. 

FINE FUNERAL SUPPLIES. 

Stein Manufacturing Company, 87 Exchange Street. 

Chappell, Chace, Maxwell & Co., 105 State Street. 

The above named firms are largely engaged in the manufacture 
of cloth -covered caskets, and coffins of every grade, and are 
wholesale dealers in funeral supplies of every description usually 
required by undertakers. 

ROCHESTER PAPER COMPANY. 

A. M. Hastings, President ; Wm. A. Hubbard, Vice President ; 
Charles S. Hastings, Secretary. Manufacturers of printing and 
other paper. The time vi^as, in this city, when the paper used for 
daily and weekly issues was made by hand, one sheet at a time. 
']"he paper-mill of this company at the Lower Falls is well worth 
a visit from such as would like to see with what facility rags and 
wood pulp are converted into beautiful white paper by the im- 
proved processes of the present time. 

WHOLESALE GROCERS. 

Smith, Perkins & Co. Established 1826. 

George C. Buell & Co. Established 1844. 

Brewster, Gordon & Co. Established 1843. 

H. Brewster & Co. Established 1853. 

Brewster, Crittenden & Co. Established 1853. 

A. M. Semple. Established 1841. 

All the above, except the last named, are exclusively wholesale 
dealers, and are well known throughout Western New York as 
strong and reputable houses, giving better terms to retail dealers 
than they could get in New York. 

WHOLESALE DRY GOODS. 

A. S. Mann & Co. Established 1838. 

Burke, Fitz Simons, Hone & Co. Established 1848. 

Sibley, Lindsay & Curr. Established 1868. 

S. J. Arnold & Co. Established 1872. 

The above-named well-known firms are among the largest in 
Western New York, as importers and jobbers, and, with one ex- 
ception, retailers of dry goods, the sales of some of them ranging 
from one to two or three millions of dollars annually, and giving 
employment to from two to three hundred clerks, porters, etc. 



APPENDIX. 397 

KIMBALL & CO.'s TOBACCO WORKS. 

This-is one of the most extensive and complete establishments 
of the kind in this part of the country, giving employment not 
only to a large number of men but also to hundreds of needy, in- 
dustrious girls. Their manufactured goods consist chiefly of their 
celebrated " Peerless " and " Vanity Fair " tobacco, and ciga- 
rettes, and are shipped to San Francisco, London, Australia, and 
nearly every civilized country on the globe. Other extensive and 
well-known manufacturers of tobacco in our city are, S. F. Hess 
& Co., R. Whalen & Co., T. Whalen, G. & C. Gucker, R. D. 
Kellogg. 

THE CUNNINGHAM CARRIAGE WORKS. 

This is one of the largest and most prominent establishments 
of the kind in the country, dating its origin back to 1838. The 
firm name now being Cunningham, Son & Co. Some idea of the 
extent of their business may be had from the fact that the build- 
ings comprising their present works on Canal Street, if placed in 
a straight line, would measure one thousand feet : one half, six 
stories high and forty five feet wide ; the other, three stories high 
and sixty-six feet wide. All these buildings are of brick, with a 
floor area of about seven acres, with ample room to employ seven 
hundred men. A great variety of vehicles are made, embracing 
family carriages, buggies, phaetons, landaus, barouches, coupe's, 
rockaways, etc. Other specialties are the manufacture of hearses, 
and from their establishment there has been turned out some of 
the most elegant and elaborate work in this country. 

If space permitted we should gladly give a detailed account of 
many other manufacturing interests, among which are prominent 
the following : Walter B. Dufifey, rectifying and vinegar works. 
James Fee & Brothers, dealers in pure wines and liquors. Kidd 
Car Wheel Works. J. S. Graham & Co., wood-working ma- 
chinery. The Cooperative Stove Works. Woodbury, Booth «Sc 
Pryor, steam-engines and boilers. Junius Judson & Son, steam 
governors, F. P. Michel, machine shop. Greenwood, barrel 
machinery. Gregg, coopers' tool factory. Erwin «& Stott, file 
works. Forsyth & Howe, scale works. Corris & Co., patent 
wheels, etc. F. L. Hughes, baby carriages. Hayden & Havens 
Co., C. J. Hayden, Minges & Shale, and I. H. Dewey, furni- 
ture works. Gibbons & Stone, piano makers. John Dufuer, 



398 APPEiYDIX. 

last maker. Geo. W. Archer & Co., dental chairs, etc. Buffalo 
Steam-gauge and Lantern Co. Little & Rowe, iron works. 
Strong, Woodbury & Co., whip makers. Otis & Gorsline, sewer 
pipe. Van Zandt, coffee and spice mills. J. B. Stevens & Son, 
and J. S. Disbrow, packing boxes. Hebard, steam marble 
works. Peter Pitkin, marble monuments. VVhitmore, Rauber & 
Vicinus, cut and sawed stone. Lowry & Bradner, morocco and 
other leather. Mack & Co., edge tools. Briggs & Son, safes. 
Sargent & Greenleaf, lock makers. Taylor Brothers, and L. C 
Tower, thermometers, and many others. 

ROCHESTER NURSERIES. 

The Nursery Business of Rochester and Monroe County ex- 
ceeds in extent that of any other State in the Union. Ellwanger 
& Barry may be said to have founded this important industry, 
which they did in the year 1840, occupying at that time but a few 
acres of land. At that period the Nursery Business was com- 
paratively a new enterprise, and many predicted the financial ruin 
of the proprietors. But they saw that a great agricultural prog- 
ress must soon be made in this country, and that there would be 
a great demand for nursery stock. 

Their grounds were steadily enlarged, and in 1849 embraced 
eighty acres. In 1852 the nurseries occupied two hundred acres, 
and, in 1857, four hundred acres. Its area rapidly increased, 
and in i860 had reached five hundred acres. In 187 1 the area 
of land covered by these nurseries reached six hundred and fifty 
acres. Space will not allow of a full and complete account of 
these extensive nurseries ; suffice it to say that four hundred and 
fifty acres of land are devoted to fruit trees ; twenty to orna- 
mental trees, shrubs, and other plants ; twenty-five acres to speci- 
men trees, both fruit and ornamental ; thirty acres are in vine- 
yards ; and about five-and-twenty included in the lawn and orna- 
mental grounds. 

In addition to the celebrated firm of Ellwanger & Barry there 
are many other firms in Rochester and vicinity worthy of men- 
tion, prominent among which are Chase Brothers, Frost & Co., 
H. E. Hooker Estate, George Moulson & Son, J. F. Norris, J. 
Salter, George S. Wales, George A. Stone, and others. 

PERFUMERY MANUFACTURERS. 

The time was when senuine Cologne water bore the name of 



APPENDIX. -i^c^c) 

Farina and others in Germany, and for the more concentrated 
and delicate perfumes we looked for the label of Liibin, and other 
chemists of Paris. Time has changed all this. This class of 
goods is now produced in this country, of equal fragrance and 
permanency to the best imported. While Philadelphia is the 
chief centre, Rochester has become famous in this line of trade. 
From the laboratories of C. B. Woodworth & Sons, and Alfred 
Wright, who employ only the most skilled chemists from France 
and Germany, all the popular perfumes of the present day can be 
obtained equal to the imported. 

JAMES VICK, THE FLORAL SEEDSMAN. 

Twenty-five years ago, James Vick, now deceased, commenced 
the systematic growing of flower seeds, and in the following year 
issued his first " Floral Guide " and catalogue. With the estab- 
lishment of this enterprise seeds were placed within the reach of 
the masses, and a new era was entered upon in the culture of 
flowers. Up to this time but few flower seeds were grown in 
America for market, and these of the commonest kinds. Mr. 
Vick was the pioneer in the systematic growing of flower seeds, 
and his son, James Vick, is now without doubt the most exten- 
sive grower in America. His immense flower gardens, in the 
blooming season, July and August, present a grand display of 
floral beauty, and tourists make " Vick's Gardens " an objective 
point in their rides about the " Flower City." 

In the growing and sale of seeds for the farm and vegetable 
garden, the firm of Hiram Sibley & Co., successors to the famous 
house of Briggs & Brother, without doubt stands at the head in 
this country. With hundreds of acres of land devoted to the 
growing, and with two immense establishments for putting up 
seeds. — one in Rochester and another in Chicago, — they must 
be almost above competition in that line of business. Besides 
these firms there are a number of younger establishments con- 
ducting a large and increasing business. 

THE FIRST BRICK BUILDING. 

This building is a private residence on the corner of West 
Main and Ford streets, the brick for which were drawn with a 
yoke of oxen from Brighton, by our venerable townsman A. B. 
Buckland, residing at the Sand Hill. 



400 APPENDIX. 



MILITARY. 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY SOLDIERY 
FROM 1 86 1 TO 1865. 

Rochester and the entire County of Monroe were true for 
the Union when its existence was threatened more than twenty 
years ago. The citizens of both city and towns were of the best 
and bravest soldiers ; the press was cheering and devoted, the 
war committees were indefatigable, and their daughters were seen 
prtscnting colors, gathering hospital supplies, and voiunteering 
to nurse the gallant sick and wounded. The history of Monroe 
in the rebellion would be a graphic record of the war in the 
East, and to trace march, camp, and battle, of all, would make a 
valuable library. The towns and city vied in gallantry, and in 
less than fifteen months over forty organized companies liad been 
raised, and most of them gone forward. 

THE THIRTEENTH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS. 

This regiment was organized in this city: eight companies 
credited to Rochester, one to Brockport, and one to Dans\ille. 
Its Colonel was I. F. Quimby, a professor in the University, and 
a graduate of West Point ; Lieutenant Colonel, E. G. Marshall ; 
and among the captains were men who rose to high positions. 
Clothed in a handsome suit of blue, and presented with a beau- 
tiful stand of colors by the ladies of Monroe County, it started 
for Washington, May 20, and, with the Twelfth New York, passed 
through Baltimore on the next day after the attack on the Massa- 
chusetts Sixth. This regiment was in the hottest of the first bat- 
tle of Bull Run, and the last to leave the field ; its record all 
through its term of service is a noble one, and on its return to 
Rochester, as it marched through the city, with its tattered colors 
borne on many battle-fields, its progress, a continuous ovation, 
wa.s, as another has ex)Dressed it, " the grandest thing in its way 
ever seen in Rochester." 

THE EIGHTH NEW YORK VOLUNTEER CAVALRY, 

With Sketches of the 21st, 22 d, and 2\th Regiments. 
The Eighth Regiment New York Cavalry was organized in 
Rochester in 1861, under Colonel Samuel J- Crooks, to serve for 
three years. Among its officers were Lieutenant Colonel Charles 



APPENDIX. 4or 

R. Babbitt, Majors William L. Markell and William H. Benja- 
min, Adjutant Albert L. Ford, Chaplain John J, Van Ingen. 

The regiment was ordered to Washington, and went into win- 
ter quarters at Camp Selden. On September ii, 1862, the 
Eighth were surrounded by Jackson's force at Harper's Ferry. 
A demand was made to surrender ; the demand was refused, and 
at midnight the regiment crossed the pontoon bridge and dashed 
on at a break-neck pace over the rocky roads directly through the 
centre of the army environing Harper's Ferry, and in the dark- 
ness taken for rebel cavalry. After this came, in rapid succes- 
sion, the engagements of Philomont, Union, Upperville, Barber's 
Cross Roads, and Amosville. After three years of brave ser- 
vice the regiment returned to Rochester. Of nine hundred and 
forty men who went away in 1861, otily one hundred and ninety 
came back. The battle-flag bore the names of sixty-four actions. 

The Twenty-first Regiment New York Cavalry was organized 
at Troy, to serve three years. Four companies, G, L, M, and H, 
were from Rochester. The regiment was with Sigel in his move- 
ment up the Shenandoah, and at a later period with Hunter in 
his great raid, performing a most gallant part. 

The Twenty-Second Regiment New York Cavalry was organized 
at Rochester, to serve for three years. It was mustered in Feb- 
ruary, 1864, and out August i, 1865, Its record, though brief, is 
brilliant. Samuel J. Crooks, Colonel of the Eighth Regiment, 
was made Colonel May 4, 1864. This regiment, under command 
of General George A. Custer, was brigaded with the Eighth, and 
Fifteenth New York and Third Indiana. In an order issued by 
the General, April 9, 1865, he closes by saying, "I only ask that 
my name may be written as that of the commander of the Third 
Cavalry Division." 

THE ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS. 

In the summer of 1862 the President issued a call for three 
hundred thousand men, and the citizens of Monroe nobly re- 
sponded, and by August i8th the new Monroe County Regiment 
— the second under the call — was fully organized at Camp Hill- 
house, Rochester. The field and staff officers were : Colonel, 
Oliver H. Palmer ; Lieutenant Colonel, Charles J. Powers ; Ma- 
jor, George B. Force ; Adjutant, John T. Chumasero ; Quarter- 
master, Joseph S., Harris; Surgeon, John F. Whitbeck ; Assistant 
Surgeon, Thomas Arner ; Chaplain, James Nichols. 
26 



402 APPENDIX. 

The regiment left Rochester August 19th, and in a few days 
went into camp five miles from Washington. 

During its term of service this noble regiment performed deeds 
of heroism, which won for the participants undying honor. After 
three years of service it returned to gladden many a home faithful 
as soldiers, estimable as citizens. 

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS. 

Scarcely had the One Hundred and Eighth received orders to 
leave for the seat of war, when a new regiment, the fourth from 
Monroe, was authorized, and by September 15 th this regiment was 
full and mustered in for three years, at Camp Porter, Rochester. 
Patrick H. O'Rorke was commissioned Colonel ; Louis Ernst, 
Lieutenant Colonel ; I. F. Force. , Major ; Ira C. Clark, Adju- 
tant ; T. F. Hall, Surgeon ; William C. Slayton and O. Sprague 
Paine, Assistant Surgeons. 

On September 15th the young ladies of Rochester presented 
the regiment with a beautiful stand of colors, and four days later 
the regiment left for Washington. 

On the 2d of July, while the regiment was hotly engaged with 
the enemy, the brave Colonel O'Rorke fell, while holding and 
waving the colors at the head of the regiment. The regiment 
was mustered out at Washington, June 3, 1865, and on the 6th 
returned to Rochester, It went out a thousand strong, had an 
addition of more than six hundred recruits, and came back with 
only two hundred and ninety men. 

THE THIRD REGIMENT NEW YORK CAVALRY, 

Known as "Van Allen's Cavalry," was mustered into service dur- 
ing the summer of 1S61. Its officers originally were: Colonel, 
James H. Van Allen ; Lieutenant Colonel, Simon H. Mix, of 
Rochester \ Major, John Mix ; Surgeon, William H. Palmer ; Ad- 
jutant, Samuel C. Pierce. Five companies were from Monroe 
County ; one company from Rochester, under Captain Charles 
Fitzsimons. On May 8th the company of George W. Lewis, 
which fought at Bull Run as infantry with the old Thirteenth, re- 
turned home and were mustered out, George W, Lewis, as Lieu- 
tenant Colonel of this regiment, on the promotion, as supposed, 
of Lieutenant Colonel Mix, did much brave and noble service. 
On June 29th a sharp action took place at Reams Station, in 
which the Third lost heavily. 



APPENDIX. 403 

At the close of the war the regiment was consolidated with the 
First Mounted Rifles, and designated the Fourth " Provisional 
Cavalry.'' 

THE FIRST REGIMENT LIGHT ARTILLERY. 

This regiment was organized at Elmira, to serve three years. 
It was mustered into service August 30, 1861. 

In this regiment was Battery "L/' known as Reynolds' Bat- 
tery, from its commander, John H. Reynolds, composed of Mon- 
roe County men, and independent in service. This battery per- 
formed long, arduous, and valuable service during the war, and 
at its close returned to Rochester, June 20, 1865, with one hun- 
dred and thirty-seven men. 

THE ELEVENTH ARTILLERY, 

Colonel W. B. Barnes, was recruited at Rochester, as heavy 
artillery, on June 16, 1863. Lee was known to have invaded 
Pennsylvania, and every available soldier was put in requisition. 
The Eleventh was ordered to proceed at once to Harrisburg, and 
report to General Couch, and all through the war, here and there, 
performed most valuable service in support of the Union. 

THE MONROE COUNTY SHARP-SHOOTERS. 

In December, 1862, Abijah C. Gray w^as commissioned to raise 
a company of sharp-shooters, to be attached to the One Hundred 
and PJighth Volunteers. In this regiment, this compan}^ com- 
posed of Monroe men, were designated as the Sixth Company. 

THE FIFTIETH ENGINEERS. 

This regiment was organized by General Charles B. Stewart, 
during the summer of 1861, and was known as "Stewart's Inde- 
pendent Volunteers." To this regiment Monroe County gave 
many men, who wei'e organized in Companies L, F, and G, and 
some in other companies. After three years of most valuable 
service, the Engineers returned to Elmira, where it had been or- 
ganized, and mustered out. 

THE THIRTY-THIRD REGIMENT. 

This regiment from the beginning contained one company from 
Monroe, and later in the term of service was heavily recruited at 
Rochester. In September, 1862, two hundred and forty recruits 
from Monroe joined the regiment. It was mustered in on May 



404 APPENDIX. 

2 2, 1861. An election being held, Robert F. Taylor, of Roches- 
ter, was made Colonel. A fine flag was presented by the ladies 
of Canandaigua, and, after a troublous stay at Elmira barracks, 
the regiment departed for Washington. 

THE EIGHTY-NINTH REGIMENT, 

Known as " Dickinson's Guards," was organized at Elmira. It 
was mustered into United States service on December 6, 1861, 
for a period of three years. Its Colonel was Harrison S. Fair- 
child, of Rochester, who was mustered out with his regiment as 
a Brigadier-General. Company D was from Monroe, and was 
rejDuted to have been composed of excellent men, who did brave 
service in the field. 

THE SEVENTIETH REGIMENT, 

Otherwise known as the First Excelsior, was organized in New 
York city, to serve for three years. It was mustered in during 
the month of June, 1861. Its Colonel was Daniel E. Sickles. 

In the Seventieth was a company from Monroe, known as " G," 
under Captain Henry B. O'Reilly. The first engagement was at 
Williamsburg. In this battle Captain O'Reilly was killed. 

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH REGIMENT 

Was formed by the consolidation of the Irish regiment re- 
cruited at Camp Hillhouse, in this city, with a regiment organized 
at Camp Upham, Leroy. 

The men from Monroe County were mainly patriotic Irishmen, 
whose discipline during the winter following prepared them for 
the arduous service they were called to perform. During the 
summer and fall this regiment was in eight battles. W^ith thinned 
Tanks, we find the regiment in camp at Belle Plain, Virginia, 
where it passed the winter. 

THE TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. 

This regiment was organized for two years early in the war, 
and bore its part in the campaigns of the various eastern gen- 
erals. In this regiment was the company of Captain Preston. 
The Monroe company went into action on one occasion with 
thirty-two men, and but nine were brought off, the regiment itself 
losing half its force in killed and wounded. 



APPENDIX. 405 

THE TWENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT 

Was organized at Elmira, where it was mustered in for two years. 
It was known as the Utica Regiment, and contained two compa- 
nies from Monroe County, one commanded by G. S. Jennings, 
afterwards promoted to Major, and tlie other by Tliomas Davis. 
The Twenty - sixth was brigaded with the Ninety - fourth and 
Eighty-eighth New York, and Ninetieth Pennsylvania, and four 
companies of the Ira Harris (Third) New York Cavalry. In the 
battle of Fredericksburg the regiment bore a gallant part, as well 
as in several other engagements. At the end of two years the 
regiment was mustered out. 

THE FOURTEENTH REGIMENT VETERAN HEAVY ARTILLERY 

Originated in this city shortly after the muster out of the old 
Thirteenth Infantry. Colonel Elisha G. Marshall was duly au- 
thorized to enter upon the work of enlisting a regiment of Heavy 
Artillery, and by July 15, 1863, had about three hundred men in 
camp on Lake Avenue, mainly veterans of the Thirteenth. The 
command lay quietly in camp until the advance across the Rap- 
idan in May, 1864. In the charge at Spottsylvania and Peters- 
burg, at Cold Harbor, Weldon Railroad, Poplar Spring Church, 
and Hatcher's Run, the command acquitted itself with credit. 
When the swing to the left had brought the Ninth Army Corps 
before Petersburg, the Fourteenth Regiment, nine hundred and 
thirteen strong, scaled the enemy's breastworks and captured a 
battle-flag, a general, and three hundred prisoners. In this 
charge Colonel Marshall was wounded. This regiment won an 
enduring and honored name as a stanch and reliable organiza- 
tion. 

THE EIGHTEENTH BATTERY LIGHT ARTILLERY, 

Designated as " Mack's Battery," was raised and organized in 
this city to go out with the One Hundred and Eighth. The com- 
pany, numbering one hundred and forty men, departed for New 
York on November 18, 1862, to join the Texas Expedition under 
General Banks. The following is a record of actions in the 
South : Pattersonville, Bisland, Comite Bridge, Port Hudson, and 
Mobile. 



406 APPENDIX. 

THE TWENTY-SIXTH BATTERY LIGHT ARTILLERY, 

This battery was organized in this city, and mustered into ser- 
vice on February 25, 1863. It was originally commanded by J. 
AVarren Barnes. The battery was ordered to the far South, and 
served in expeditions under General Banks in the Southeast, and 
was engaged at Cane River and at Avoyelles Prairie. 



INDEX. 



All the names mentioned in the book are not to be found in the Index, 
have given something like a Directory. 



That would 



Abolitionism, 254. 

Abolitionists, 256. 

Acer, John, 62. 

Acer, William, 62. 

Adams, J. Q., 343. 

Allan, Ebenezer, 47-56. 

Allan's Creek, 56. 

Allan's mill, 76. 

Allan's mill raising, 51. 

Allan's millstones, 54. 

Allan, Seneca, 56. 

Allen, Gid, 74. 

Allen, John, 121. 

Allen, iVIary B., 167, 168. 

Ancient remains, i. 

Anderson, Dr., 182, 296. 

Andrews, S. J., 86, 120. 

Anthony, Susan B., 262. 

Anti-Slavery meeting, 22r. 

Anti-Slavery Society, 132. 

Appendi.K A, 353. 

Appendix B, 357. 

Aqueduct, 212, 371. 

Arcade, 154. 

Archer's Dental Chairs, 312. 

Architecture, 163. 

Art Club, 380. 

Art Exchange, 380. 

Art Gallery, 274, 394. 

Art Gallery receptions, 276. 

Artists, 158. 

Assessors' Department, 359. 

Associations and Societies, 377. 

Asylum, Deaf Mute, 309. 

Atkinson's mill, 85, 342. 

Backus, Charles, 173. 

Backus, Dr., 89. 

Backus, Mrs. Elizabeth, 130. 

Banks, 373, 374. 

Bar, early, 392. 

Barnard, J., 85, 339. 

Base ball, 137. 

Beach, Elisha, 61. 



Bear's Bones monument, 234. 

Beckwith, F. X., 99, 249. 

Benedict, Dr. N. W., 179. 

Bible Society, American, 123. 

Bishops (Episcopal), 300. 

Bissell and Riley, 124, 127, 143, 184. 

Blossoms, B., 54. 

Boardman, Derick, 172. 

Boats, Durham, 34. 

Bond, J. G., 32, 341. 

Boots and Shoes, manufacture of, 389. 

Boughton, A., 28. 

Boughton Hill, 23, 28. 

Boys, old school, 169. 

Brandt, J., 17, 19. 

Breweries, 395. 

Bridge, Falls Town, 70. 

Bridge, petition for, 55. 

Bridges, 375. 

Brooks, Lewis, 293. 

Brooks, M., 338. 

Brooks, Mary H., 233. 

Brown, Dr. J., 89. 

Brown, Francis, loi. 

Brown, John, raid of, 254, 258. 

Brule, 13. 

Buell's Avenue, 318. 

Buffalo, Battle of, 23. 

Buffalo Creek treaty, 43. 

Bumphrey, Major, 242. 

Bunnell, Reuben, 133. 

Burke, Fitz Simmons, Hone & Co., 

352- 
Burnet, Governor, 29. 
Burr, Aaron, 39. 
Bush, George, 281. 
Butler's Rangers, 49. 

Canal, Erie, 106, 109. 
Canal, Genesee Valley, ilS. 
Carantouans, 13. 
Caroline, burning of the, 247. 
Carriage Works, 397. 
Carroll, Major, 64, 121. 



4o8 



INDEX. 



Carter, Mrs., 88. 

Carthage, t^"^, 6i. 

Carthage bridge, 62, 376. 

Carthage R. R., 135. 

Carver monument, 233. 

Castle Town, 33. 

Cattle Show, first, 343. 

Cemeteries, 3S3. 

Champlain, li, 14. 

Charities and Associations, 381. 

Charlevoi.x, i. 

Cherry Valley, 17. 

Chichester, Rev. D., 171. 

Child, Jonathan, iii, 203. 

Child's Block, 164. 

Childs, Timothy, iii. 

Cholera, 191. 

Christ Church, 129. 

Churches, list, 368. 

Circus, 374. 

City Election notice (first), 199. 

City Government, 357. 

City Hall, 351. 

City OJficers, 358. 

Cleveland, 34. 

Clinton, De Witt, visit of, 60. 

Clinton, De Witt, portrait of, 115. 

Clothing, manufacture of, 390. 

Coal, 346. 

Cobb, G., 339. 

Cochrane, Joseph, 184. 

Coffin manufacturers, 228, 396. 

Cogswell statue, 147. 

College, Medical, 301. 

Common Council, 358. 

Copeland, Rev. John, 173. 

Corn Planter, 18. 

Court- House (first), 343. 

Crab Island, 96. 

Crescent Mill, 344. 

Cuba, N. Y., 37. 

Culver, O., 33, 54, 339. 

Danforth, G. F., 306. 

Dayton, Asa, 32. 

Deaf Mute Institute, 367. 

Debt, city, 3S6. 

Debtors' races, 99. 

Deep Hollow, 3. 

Deej) Hollow breastwork, loo. 

Dentists, early, 393. 

Depot, Central R. R., 311. 

Detroit, 34. 

Dewey, D. M., 9, 158, 163, 354. 

Dewey, Dr., 5, 169, 181. 

Dolley, Sarah R. A., M. D., 265. 

Doty, Dr., 95. 

Douglass, Frederick, 254, etc. 

Drake, Sam, 133. 

Druggists, early, 393. 



Dry goods, wholesale, 396. 
Duffy's cider mill, 295. 
Dugan, C, letter of, t^t^-j. 
Dugway, 22. 
Dunbar, Asa, 32. 
Durfee, Cyrus, 172. 
Dutch traders, 10. 

Eagle Hotel, old, 90. 

Electric light, 352. 

Ellwanger & Barry, 157, 295. 

Ellwanger monument, 239. 

Elwood Block, 298. 

Elwood, Dr. J. B., 84. 

Elv, Elisha, loi. 

Ely, H., 341. 

Embankment, Bushnell's Basin, 114. 

Erickson monument, 232. 

Ethridge, O. H., 161. 

Evans, G. H., 93. 

Excise Commissioners, 360. 

Executive Board, 361. 

Falls Town, 4, 32. 

Female Charitable Society, 130. 

Fenner, Madison County, 13. 

Fire alarm, 365. 

Fire Department, 363. 

Firemen's monument, 233. 

First things, 337. 

First white child, 92. 

Fitch, Charles E., 317. 

Fitzhugh, Colonel, 64. 

Five Nations, 17. 

Float bridge, 26, 34. 

Floods, 370. 

Fording Genesee, 54. 

Fourth July, first celebrated, 342. 

Fox family, 346. 

Fox girls, 267. 

Franciscans, 14, 22. 

Frankford, 33. 

Free academy, 347. 

Free schools, 345. 

Fremin, Father, 23. 

French burying-ground, 3. 

French warfare, 22. 

Galusha, Rev. Elon, 252. 

Garden, Summer, 216. 

Gardiner, Addison, 304. 

Gardiner & Selden, 304. 

Garnier, Father, 23. 

Gas-light companies, 371. 

Genesee, Charlevoix's description, 36. 

Genesee Country, 78. 

Genesee, the river, 36. 

Gilbert, Grove S., 159, 163. 

Gilmore, Professor, 298. 

Glen House, 4. 



INDEX. 



409 



Globe Buildings, 283. 
Gorham, Nathaniel, 46. 
Gould, Jacob, 152, 163, 167. 
Granger, Eli, 59. 
Graveyards, first, 223, 225. 
Greek rebellion, 213. 
Green, Seth, 307. 
Greenwood, Grace, 170, 178, 255. 
Griffin, Ebenezer, 152. 
Groceries, wholesale, 396. 
Guernsey, James K., 213, 354. 

Hagerstown, 65. 

Hall, Moses, 76. 

Hall, Sedge, 133. 

Hanford's Landing, 33. 

Harford, C, 60. 

Harford's mill, 60. 

Hatch, J. M., 54. 

Havvley, Jesse, 45, 107. 

Health Department, 360. 

Health statistics, 385. 

Hebrew reformers, 299. 

Hemlock Lake water, 351. 

Hencher, William, 60. 

Hennepin, Father, 23. 

Hennepin's Niagara, 23. 

Hieronymo, Rev. Mother, 265. 

High school, old, 166. 

Hill, Charles B., 172. 

Hilton, Colonel, 64. 

Himes, J. V., 254. 

Holley, Myron, 231, 254. 

Hospitals, 388. 

Hotels, 374. 

House of Refuge, 310. 

Howe, Jacob, 89. 

Hudson, Hendrick, 12. 

Humphrey, Hon. Harvey, 160. 

Hundred Acre Tract, old deed of, 354. 

Hunt, Dr., 339. 

Huntington, Bishop, 19. 

Huron- Algonquins, 11. 

Hyatt, T. Hart, 242. 

Ice industry, 394. 

Incendiary tract, 12 1. 

Insurance, Mutual Aid, 372. 

Insurance, Mutual Relief, 372. 

Insurance, Rochester German Co., 

^ 372. 

Irondequoit Bay, 4, 21. 

Irondequoit, British fleet in, 30. 

Iroquois, 6, 8, 18. 

Iroquois, defeat of, 20. 

Iroquois, farewell of, 15. 

Isms, 245. 

Jemison Mary, 2, 9, 48. 
Jesuits, II, 14, 16. 



Johnson's Dam, 85, 341. 
Johnson, E., 85, 91, 122. 
Johnson, Rossiter, 309. 
Johnson, Sir \Vm., 17, 31. 
Joncaire, 29. 
July Fourth, 211, 219. 

Kedzie, John, 161. 

Kendrick, Dr., 302. 

Kent, Elijah, 59. 

Kimball's Tobacco Works, 295. 

King, Moses, 341. 

King, Simon, 59. 

King, Thomas, 59. 

Kirkland, Rev. S., 43, 52. 

Knockings, Rochester, 267. 

La Fayette, 136. 

La Fayette Letter, by Mr. Brown, 353. 
Lamberville, Father,' 23, 25. 
Lancastrian system, 181. 
Land League, 352. 
Land slide (Genesee), 2. 
Lansberg, Dr., 299. 
La Salle, 23. 
Lattimore, Dr., 298 
Lawsuits, early, 204. 
Letchworth, W. P., 9. 
Lewis, Z., 74, 339. 
Liancourt, Duke of, 58. 
Liberty Party, 256. 
Lick, Deer, 75, 96. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 259. 
Long House, i, 6. 

Long House, sale to Phelps and Gor- 
ham, 40. 
I Losea, Silas, 33. 
Lot buyers, 181 1, 71. 
Lottery, 218. 
Lusk, 32, 52. 

McGonegal, John, 35. 

McQuaid, Bishop, 300, 309. 

Mackensie, Dr. Wm. L., 246, 249. 

McKnight, Dr., 171. 

Mammoths, 290. 

Manufacturers, 397. 

Market Building, 164. 

Marsh, Daniel, 16S. 

Masons' Charter, 197. 

Mastodon, 3. 

Mathews, Vincent, 337. 

Mathies (artist), iS. 

Mayors, list of, 357. 

Medicines, patent, 393. 

Merrimac, defeat of, 348. 

Military in civil war, 400-406. 

Millerism, 251. 

Milling interest, 3S7. 

Mill lot, old, bought of Senecas, 44, 



4IO 



INDEX. 



Mills, Plioenix, 6i. 

Missionary societies, 130. 

Missions, R. C, 19. 

Monroe County, 99. 

Montgomery, H., 90, 119. 

Montreal, Iroquois attack on, 28. 

Moore, Dr. K. M., 301. 

Moore, L. M., 87, 132. 

Morgan aflair, 13S. 

Morgan, "Good Enough," 148. 

Morgan, L. H., 2, 6, 302. 

Morgan, L. H. Endowment Fund, 

267. 
Mormon ]>ible, 58. 
Moses, Schuyler, 91, 223. 
Mound builders, i, 22. 
Mount Hope, 223. 
Mud, Rochester, 88. 
Municipal Court, 360. 
Murder of Wni. Lyman, 344. 
Museum (old), 128, 217. 
" Mysteries of Rochester," 346. 

Neander's Library, 298. 

Neanderthal man, the, 292. 

Neely, Bishop, 300. 

Neutrals, the, 23. 

Newport House, 26. 

Newspapers, 391. 

Newsi^ajjers (old files), 205. 

Newton, Colonel Aaron, 133. 

New York, Western, first settled, 29. 

Nine Mile Point, 25, 31. 

Nonville, Marquis de, in Irondequoit 

Bay, 24. 
Northrup, Miles, 54. 
Nurseries, 398. 

Observatory, Warner, 284. 
Odd Fellows, 345. 
(Jld school-boys, 169. 
One Hundred Acre Tract bought by 
Rochester, Carroll, and Fitzhugh, 

64. 
Onondaga Castle, 19, 23. 
Ontario, Lake, 5. 

O'Reilly, Henry, 42, 59, 146, 344, etc. 
Osborn, Nehemiah, 6, 165. 

Palmer, James, 129. 

Paper Co , Rochester, 396. 

Parker, J. G., 250. 

Parsons, Chauncey, 242. 

Patch, .Sam, 184. 

Patriot Hill, 235. 

Patriot war, 246. 

Peck, Everard, 90, 131, 205. 

Peck, Norman, 174. 

Penfield, Daniel, 214. 

Perfumery Manufacturers, 398. 



Perry, Old, 170. 

Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, 41. 
Phelps and Gorham's title deed, 41. 
Phelps, Mary, 46. 
Phelps, Oliver, 45. 
Philijjpe, Louis, visit of, 39. 
Physicians, early, 392. 
Pioneer stages, 124. 
Pioneers, Phelps and Gorham's Pur- 
chase, 57. 
Pioneers still living, 392. 
Pioneers, the young, 55. 
Pittsford, ■;^T^. 
Piate Glass, 352. 
Police Department, 359. 
Pomcroy & Mastick, 86. 
Population, different dates, 391. 
Portage Falls, 9. 
Post, Isaac and Amy, 258, 300. 
Post-Office, 376. 
Powers, D. W., 273. -^ 
Powers Buildings, 272. 
Powers Corner, first arrival, 74. 
Press, Rochester, 1834, 195. 
Printing Press (first), 342. 
Printing and Advertising, 361. 
Prophecies : D. W. Powers, 319. 

Dr. Lansberg, 320. 

Dr. Thomas, 321. 

Dr. Shaw, 322. 

Dr. Piatt, y.^. 

G. H. Humphrey, 324. 

G. T. Parker, 325. 

Mrs. Boyd, 325. 

Dr. Dollev, 327. 

W. S. Whittlesey, 328. 

G. A. Redman, 329. 

J. H. Kent, 329. 

S. A. Ellis, 331. 

D. M. Dewey, 331. 

G. T. Lanigan, 332. 

Lewis Swift, 333. 

H. E. Rochester, 334. 
Pundit Club, 302. 

Quakers, 86. 

Railroads, 134, 139. 
Rattlesnake oil. So. 
Rattlesnakes, 6, 76. 
Red Cross Society, 262, 301. 
Red Jacket, 9, 18, 209, 221. 
Red Mill, 342. 
Reformatory (Girls), 310. 
Refuge, House of, 383. 
Reid,"j. D., 248. 
Revivals, 127. 

Revolutionary soldiers, 244. 
Reynolds, A., 88. 
Reynolds, A., buys lot, 81. 



INDEX. 



411 



Reynolds, Mrs. A., loi. 

Reynolds, M. F. 94. 

Reynolds, W. A., 97, loi, 157, 226, 

344- 
Ridge Road, 4 
Riley, A. W., 121, 123, 127, 177, 191, 

214. 
Robinson, John, 134, 212, 214. 
Rochester, 1834, 193. 
Rochester, 1S83, 312. 
Rochester, first arrivals, 84. 
Rochester in the Rebellion, 317. 
Rochester, Old Map, 119. 
Rochester, Colonel N., 63, 67, 70. 
Rochester, Colonel, leaves Maryland, 

65- 
Rochester, H. E., 66, 113. 
Rochester, Thomas H., 112. 
Rochester, W. B, 67, 108, 126, 137. 
Rochesterville, 75. 
"Rock and Tree," 39. 

Sabbath question, 124. 

Safe Deposit, 372. 

Salt Springs, 80. 

Sampson, Judge Ashley, 136, 206. 

Sand-bar, 21. 

Sawyer, Colonel Amos, 133. 

Schools, Public, 366. 

vScrantom, Edwin, 60, 67, 73, 75, 176, 
•225. 

Scrantom., H., arrival of, 72. 

Scrantom, H., letter of, 76. 

Schuyler, General, 18. 

Schuyler, Montgomery, 309. 

Schuyler, Peter, 29. 

Science, Academy of, 380. 

Sciences, Society of Natural, 379. 

Scott, Sam, 190. 

Seaver, James E., 9. 

Seedsmen, 399. 

Selden, H. R., 306. 

Selden, S. L., 305. 
Seminary, Theological, 298. 

Senecas, 3, 8, 17, 36. 
Shaeffer's Flats, 49, 52. 
Sibley College, Cornell, 294. 
Sibley, Hiram, 76, 157. 
Six Nations, 17. 
Smith, E. F., 239. 
Smith, Edward M., 169. 
Smith, E. Peshine, 309. 
Smith, James B., 171. 
Smith, Joseph, 58. 
Smith, fudge E. D., 152. 
Smith, Silas O., 84, 86, 88, 129. 
Societies and Associations, 377. 
Sodus, 33. 

Soldiers' Aid Society, 318. 
Spiritualism, 268. 



Stage lines, 210. 
Starr, Dr. C. S., 301. 
Starr, Frederick, 171. 
Stejjping Mill, 214. 
Stillson, Geo. D., 229. 
Stone, Enos, 55, 70. 
Stone, Enos, raising, 72. 
.Stone, James .S., 93. 
Stone, Joseph, 84. 
Stone, Mrs. Orange, 39. 
Stone's, Mrs., tea party, 340. 
Street lamjis, 361. 
Street railroad, 375. 
Streets, naming of, 120. 
Strong, Elisha B., 61. 
Strong, Huldah, 341. 
Stull, Joseph A., 65. 
Suicides' graves, 87. 
Sullivan, 16, 49. 
Sullivan's raid, 20, 235. 
Sunday-Schools, 123, 132. 
Swedenborgianism, 271. 
Swift, Lewis, 283. 

Tax Levy, 386. 
Tea party, Mrs. Stone's, 340. 
Telegraph, daily, 220. 
Telegi-aph, first, 346. 
Telephone, 352. 

Testinional to Miss Anthony, 263. 
Theatre, first, 377. 
Theatres, old, 215, 219. 
Theological Seminary, 384. 
Thirty-Three, our brave, 95. 
Tobacco, manufacture of, 397. 
Tomatoes, first, 343. 
Tonawanda excursion, 344. 
Tonti, 25. 

Tourgee, Judge, 309. 
Trading-posts, 16, 24. 
Trails, Iroquois, 38. 
Training days, 133. 
Training School for Nurses, 267. 
Transportation, river, 1 16. 
Treaties, Lidian, 18. 
Treaty, United States and Great Brit- 
ain, 17. 
Tryon, city of, 32. 
Twenty Thousand Acre Tract, 59. 

Underground Railway, 257. 
Union League, 349. 
University, Rochester, 296, 3S4. 

Valuation, assessors', 386. 
Vick, 294, 399. 
Village incorporated, 90. 
Vining, Rev. E., 244. 
Volunteers, first, 347. 
Voting, women, 349. 



412 



INDEX. 



Wadsworth, Colonel J., i^, 337. 
Wadswoith's hand-bills, 7S. 
Walker the ranger, 38. 
Ward, Professor 11. A., 2, 288. 
Ward, Ur. L., 63, 86, 132, 167. 
Ward, Levi A., 192. 
Ward's Museum, 288. 
Warner, II. G., 18. 
Warner, II. II., 2S4. 
Warner's lUiildings, 311. 
Washington, General, 18. 
Water-works, 362. 
Watts, Ebenezer, 279. 
Wax-works, 129. 
W'cbster, Daniel, speech of, 37. 
Weed, Thurlow, 59, 146, 



Western Union, 347. 
Whitney, John, 144, 147. 
Whittlesey, Frederic, 137, 143. 
Wide-awakes, 347. 
Wilkinson, Jemima, 53, 57. 
Williams, Comfort, 340. 
Williams, Judge John, 103. 
Williamson, Colonel, 54. 
Winslow, J. M., 114, 357. 393- 
Woman's rights, 260. 
Woman's Rights Convention, 261, 346. 
Wright, Elizur, 255. 

Yeo's invasion, 95. 
Yeo, Sir James, 98. 
Yonnondio, Hosmer's, 27. 



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